Campaigns and movements in civil society are the most likely source for the revitalisation of social democracy.

Reconstructing social democracy in Europe will require tackling three difficult, separate but inter-related questions:

• How to integrate acceptance of markets with social democracy’s major objectives?
• How to rebuild a popular base?
• How to build a true European and international level of action?

Social democracy successfully came to terms with the market economy when that economy could be seen as big corporations employing unionised mass workers making relatively standard products. The labour movement’s own organisations reflected that kind of structure, as did its policy preferences for predictable markets steered by government. We have never found a similarly appropriate approach to deal with rapidly changing, entrepreneurial organisations in private services sectors. Can we develop policies that are in tune with social- democratic values, which do not just control and regulate, but also actively support innovation and the exploitation of new market opportunities by firms? And can trade unions outside Denmark, Finland and Sweden develop a strong presence among workers in private services, which largely means representing the concerns of women workers in particular?

The Blair-Schröder project thought that it had the answer to the problem of social democracy for post-industrial society, but it failed to develop anything that distinguished itself from neoliberalism, especially in the UK. This is because it failed to develop a popular base, to root its position in society. Worse, it wanted to dispense with the need for such a base. It disliked the two bases that it had inherited – the manual working class and public employees – as it wanted to be released from the policy constraints that they imposed. Following the logic of commercial advertising techniques – which have become the only form of mass political communication – it did not want to lose appeal to some parts of the electorate because it was targeting itself on other parts. It therefore sought no specific social bases, sought the support of a mass media owned by billionaires, and solicited funds from business to replace those that came from members.

Business leaders became the parties’ principal preferred constituency, though their overtures were never reciprocated. Very little was done to express and address the concerns of ordinary people, apart from helping them equip themselves to fight for places in the labour market. This stultified any attempt to develop a new social-democratic politics, and eroded party differences. For example, parties of the centre left might have been expected to campaign against the erosion of work-life balance that has been the result of the rise of unsocial working hours and the growth of a two-gender work force without adequate care services. This could have united the old manufacturing working class and the new services proletariat, as well as professional and managerial workers. But such a position is not ‘business friendly’.

But what else could the parties have done? Building new support bases is slow, and meanwhile elections have to be fought. Parties dare not take risks, especially when in government. This has to be done by social movements and trade unions, working outside parties. If and when causes and campaigns can prove they have popular support, the parties will listen to them. The women’s movement and the greens have shown us this; it must now be done around other issues too. This does not mean turning our backs on parties: we need people within them, waiting to welcome campaigns when they succeed. But don’t expect the initiatives to come from them.

Further, social democracy’s main achievements – social citizenship rights – are essentially national, as they were won by national parties. But the dynamic forces in today’s world are global, especially global corporations that cannot easily be managed nationally. Even Europe is escaping from our grasp, as Europeanisation becomes increasingly a project of market-making alone. National rights achieved in the past are needing to be defended against European and global neoliberal forces, which are building a future without social democracy. Established parties seem unable to develop third options beyond this stark choice. Again, we have to look to transnational campaigns by cause groups, free from electoral constraints, who have shown that they can break through national barriers – for example by uniting unions in the west with those in developing countries to combat the exploitation of women and children in supply chains. It is here that we find the pioneers the next historical stage of social democracy.