The Politics of Social Democracy: Issues, Dilemmas, and Future Directions for the Centre-Left

Description

This book addresses the meaning of contemporary social democracy and how the centre-left is navigating through its current identity crisis, through a series of cases of social democratic and labour parties across Europe and the Anglosphere. The book examines the ideological, policy, electoral and organisational dilemmas facing the centre-left. Taking in cases including those from the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand, it outlines and explores the current and future trajectories of the family of centre-left parties. This text will be of key interest to students, scholars and interested readers of labour and social democratic politics, centre-left political parties, trade unions, the future of the centre-left, and more broadly to those studying political parties, European and comparative politics. Cover Endorsement Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of contents Figures Tables Acknowledgements 1 The meaning of social democracy Introduction Understanding social democracy: Models, ideas, actors Social democracy as a model Social democracy as ideology Social democratic actors Linking the elements: The dilemmas of social democracy Theorising social democracy The state of social democracy: Dead, in crisis, or transforming? The death of social democracy The crisis and transition of social democracy Outline of the book Notes 2 The ideology of social democracy The identity crisis of social democracy Ideas and ideology Mapping social democracy Social democracy and design values A conservative social democracy? ‘Thin’ social democracy? Note 3 Ideological dilemmas Introduction Ideological dilemmas in France Centrist vs radical social democracy in the PS – Valls vs Hamon The ideological contest at the 2017 presidential election Identity crisis in Australia? The Hawke-Keating era The ALP under Rudd and Gillard ALP history shaping the future ‘Technocratic’ social democracy under Shorten’s Labor A left-wards turn – Labour under Corbyn in the UK Corbyn’s new politics Equality and inequality under Corbyn’s Labour Labour’s ‘new’ political economy The role of state and the approach to welfare The morphology of ideology under Corbyn’s Labour The ideological dilemmas of social democracy Notes 4 Social democracy and policy change Introduction Mapping policy change Policy change and social democracy Left/Right scale (RILE) Program overlap Third way salience Social democracy and policy change – In summary Policy change and social democracy – Selected cases Internationalism Economic policy The ‘new’ politics Equality and welfare Nationalism, law and order, traditional morality, and multiculturalism Support for social groups In summary – Policy change across nine social democratic parties A new wave of social democracy? Policy change across the social democratic party family Notes 5 Dilemmas of political economy Introduction The political economy of social democracy Transformation and dilemmas Neo-liberalism Financialisation and privatised Keynesianism Structural changes, political pressures Postcapitalism and ‘new’ agendas The dilemmas of social democratic political economy Cases of social democratic political economy dilemmas Pasokification in Greece ‘The empty locker’: New threats in Sweden Social democracy constrained – the case of Australia The contradictions of social democratic political economy Notes 6 Dilemmas of welfare and social policy Introduction Welfare regimes in context Challenges to the welfare state Exogenous factors Endogenous factors Third way welfare reform – The social investment state The electoral pain of third way welfare reform Social democracy and the welfare state – A new resurgence of support Social democratic welfare agendas The discourse of welfare policy Approaches and strategies to the welfare state Welfare and unemployment Training and education Pensions and aged policy Childcare and gender Social democratic welfare and the future Notes 7 Dilemmas of immigration Introduction Immigration and the centre-left Immigration and multiculturalism: Policy change and the centre-left Social democracy and immigration in practice – Cases ‘Flexible’ solidarity and restrictive immigration in Slovakia Breaking the ‘cordon sanitaire’ in Austria Identity crisis in the Netherlands The centre-left tangled up in immigration Notes 8 Electoral dilemmas Introduction – The electoral dilemmas of social democracy Social democracy in retreat Social democracy and electoral dilemmas Three dilemmas The social democratic voter The changing sociology of the social democratic voter The re-emergence of class The middle-classing of the centre-left political parties Class and voting in the UK Class, voting, and social democracy Demand-side voting and social democracy Electoral retreat and future strategies Electoral strategies for the centre-left? The electoral rupturing of social democracy Notes 9 Dilemmas in office Introduction – The dilemmas of office for social democracy Social democracy and the dilemmas of office The dilemmas of office Coalition formation, ideology, and institutional settings Coalition formation and junior partners Centre left parties in coalition Red-Green coalitions in Denmark The 2011 policy agenda The centre-left since 2019 Danish centre-left coalitions – An overview The centre-left on the march: The ‘contraption’ in Portugal Building the ‘contraption’ Trade-offs and compromises: founding the ‘contraption’ Ties that bind – the mechanics of the contraption A fourth way for social democracy? Social democracy under coalition conditions Notes 10 Organisational dilemmas Introduction The ‘agony’ of centre-left political parties Declining party membership Declining trade union membership Narrowing representation Reversing the decline – The promise of intra-party democracy? Leadership selection Candidate selection Role of the unions Policy formulation Experiments in democracy – Consultation, community organising, and ‘movementisation’ The social democratic party family in transition Organisational dilemmas at the international level The social democracy party family – The party with no name? Notes 11 The next wave of social democracy? The future of social democracy Four waves of social democracy Social democracy: Death, crisis, and transformation Social democracy as a multi dimensional phenomenon Mapping change across the social democratic party family Ideological transformations and dilemmas Shifting left – policy change across the social democratic party family Dilemmas in the electorate, in office, and on the ground Three futures of social democracy: telos, anemia, lightning Telos Anemia Lightning The next wave of social democracy References Appendices Appendix 1 Ideology and policy in the 2017 French presidential election Appendix 2 ALP ideology and policy 1983–2019 Appendix 3 Welfare policies, nine social democratic parties Appendix 4 Immigration policies, nine social democratic parties Index