The Future of Social Democracy
Though social democracy has had its problems, it offers a politics that can be developed and broadened to encompass the needs of the present.
Social democracy faces testing times in Europe and elsewhere, but the pessimism can be overdone. We should avoid both the politics of nostalgia and the politics of despair. An example of the politics of despair is the view that nothing at all was achieved in the Third Way period, which is often seen in entirely negative terms as a wasted decade, during which social democracy succumbed to neoliberalism and became indistinguishable from it. This then feeds the politics of nostalgia, the idea that there was a golden age of social democracy located somewhere in the period between 1945 and 1970. This exaggerates the success of neoliberalism in the last thirty years, just as it overestimates the achievements of post-war social democracy. The post-war years were hardly an era of social-democratic party hegemony in Europe. Indeed in the 1950s there was virtually a social-democracy-free zone as far as Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain were concerned. Neoliberalism has been a powerful ideology, but even overtly neoliberal governments in the 1980s were unable to roll back the state in the way they hoped, or to unwind the coils of social democracy. As Steven Hill in his contribution to this debate reminds us, viewed from anywhere else on the planet, Europe (including Britain) still looks like an oasis of social democratic achievement.
But Jon Cruddas and Andrea Nahles are right to argue that that we have entered a new period, with some major new challenges, and social democracy has to adjust. We do need some serious reflection on what we mean by social democracy, and what its priorities should now be. Irving Kristol once called neo-conservatism a persuasion, not a fixed doctrine, and that is how we should think of social democracy. It is a particular approach to politics, one built around ideas like security, co-operation and fairness, but whose ideas have to be adapted in every new era of world politics. We need to re-examine the common principles which define social democracy as a persuasion, and how best they should be applied to the problems we face. They help make sense of the world around us, as well as indicating what we should do. The social-democratic persuasion has to be renewed in every generation and every period, and this time is no different, but we should not imagine we live in some new dark age for the left. There have been much darker times in the last century. Let us celebrate the achievements of social democracy at the same time as we analyse its shortcomings.
It is true that there has been a narrowing of social democracy in recent times. Let us now seek to broaden it again, drawing on its rich inheritance of ideas, institutions, experiences and policies. Social democracy will be stronger in the future if it engages with other traditions such as republicanism – rediscovering new ways to define the public realm and the public interest – and cosmopolitanism, recovering the internationalism which one hundred years ago was its hallmark. Social democracy in the past has often had a fairly simple-minded view of politics; yoking progressive ideas with popular majorities, and using state power to bring about the good society. This sets up expectations which cannot be met and leads to swings between unrealistic hope and unfounded disillusion. What we need instead is a political vision which acknowledges the intractable dilemmas that make up politics, the irreconcilable nature of many of our deepest desires, the complexity of the problems we face. Our aim should not be to achieve political power in order to run everything, but to enable the kind of institutions to flourish which will embed the values of security, co-operation and fairness. As many contributors to this debate have urged, a concern with the winning of elections and the gaining of state power remains important, but should not lead to the neglect of efforts to shape the wider context, both national and international, in which governments operate. It is the ability to do that in the past that has been the greatest achievement of social democracy, and it is that above all we should seek to renew.
This debate is on a social democracy at a European level; in that light I apologise that the thrust of my contribution is UK oriented, but the essential points made are of wider applicability: existing economic and social arrangements, and public policy choices concerning their future development, need to be continually assessed against the primary strategic, and defining, social democratic benchmark: their relative impact on the lifetime opportunities that are available to low and middle-income households, particularly the poor and disadvantaged; economic efficiency and social justice should not only be firmly bolted together, but must be married to an overarching and coherent political strategy, where values, policy, and presentation are integrated and connected in that sequential order, not values subordinated to tactics; and, that it is ultimately politically counter productive in both electoral and policy outcome terms for a political party wishing to advance social democracy, not to connect and order values, policy, and presentation together in that ascending order.
Within the context of this particular debate, my assessment is that this debate has fallen in the trap of tending to be too abstract and diffuse. The essential points above need to be highlighted rather at each and every opportunity and applied as a practical poliitcal methodology. To that end, I draw readers attention to a new website established for that purpose, and I do hope that the papers downloadable form it are found useful by at least some fellow readers and contributors.
The tragedy of British politics is that while the natural political culture and inclination of its people are predominately social democratic, seldom are its governments in practice and outcome. That reality has been made poignant by the global financial crisis and accompanying recession demonstrating that under-regulated markets and widening inequalities are inimical to sustainable growth. The aftermath of the near collapse of a capitalism built on neo-liberal foundations has potentially has opened a unique window of opportunity to recast British politics onto sustainable social democratic tramlines, even though the electoral odds within the UK two party system are strongly in favour of a 2010 Cameron Conservative vistory.
Post war, that alternating two party system encouraged swings between the poles of statism and free market excess. Then, beginning with the John Major era, explicit class-based politics were jettisoned by the main political parties in their journey towards the centre. Ostensible lip service is now paid by both New Labour and Conservatives to values, such as fairness, and to the utility of core public services, such as health: positions that are intrinsically social democratic. Yet, their common use of the media to capture the contingent support of the median voter on the particular pressing issue of the day at any particular point on time (epitomised in New Labour usage, and providing a convenient shorthand descriptive label for its practice) is inconsistent with strategic and sustainable social democratic advance.
So the noughties saw a shifting and loose social democracy at best, driven by the opportunistic motives of an increasingly homogenised political class, progressively detaching itself from community-based roots or interests, no longer riven by ideology. Instead collectively swayed by the perceived ability of international news conglomerates to mould and dominate public opinion and seemingly united more by love of power and perquisites than by competing versions or variants of the Good Life.
A value-driven and sustainable social democracy requires, rather, a quite different kind of methodology to underpin its political management and development. Essentially, it requires existing economic and social arrangements, and public policy choices concerning their future development, to be continually assessed against the primary strategic, and defining, social democratic benchmark: their relative impact on the lifetime opportunities that are available to low and middle-income households, particularly the poor and disadvantaged. And without sacrificing economic efficiency, nor the sustainable economic advancement of the population in general. Tall and challenging orders, true; but necessary, unifying, coherent, and defendable.
Expanding pathways to prosperity and opportunity, to jobs, to social goods, such as quality health, education, and housing, whether public or privately provided, in an efficient and affordable way, thus is the central currency of social democratic political methodology, with its value-based narrative. Making work pay though income maintenance reforms that reduce existing marginal rates of income withdrawal on the low paid – rates that greatly exceed the marginal rates faced by the high paid – concurrent with phasing out of taxation reliefs that disproportionately to the benefit the rich is one example of its translation into sustainable strategic change.
Social democratic methodology thus provides a value-base to guide and underpin policy, not a positivist scientific or philosophical lodestar to sermonise on: social democrats in the past have tended to over-rely on moral rhetoric and to neglect their political methodology. It can instead be applied in a flexible but principled manner across party political boundaries, overlapping ‘left’ and ‘right’ positions in relation to redistribution, individual responsibility, and public service reform, conducive also to the sustained development of a progressive political consensus that fosters cohesion and solidarity across social boundaries. In that light, social democrats, even though they may be of a different radical or conservative bent of mind and/or background, often possess greater affinities of political and social purpose and common ground with each other, especially across particular issues, than with members of their own particular political parties more wedded to free market, illiberal, or collectivist solutions as first order principles.
In that light, asocialdemocraticfuture.org.has been established in order to provide some added and needed space for those, regardless of party affiliation, or of none, who want to contribute to a new politics marked by social democratic values guiding strategic policy development, rather than tactical interventions geared to short-term control of news agenda: people I call hard social democrats. Its primary purpose is to stimulate debate on how social democrats can best help shape the realignment of politics in a way that is both intellectually robust and politically feasible. Some initial papers that aim to chart a way forward for hard social democrats committed to sustainable outcomes, rather than illusory short-term party political advantage, are downloadable from it.
A Social Democratic Methodology highlights, that, in a nutshell, economic efficiency and social justice should not only be firmly bolted together, but must be married to an overarching and coherent political strategy, where values, policy, and presentation are integrated and connected in that sequential order, in direct contrast to the New Labour subordination of values to tactics.
Housing: A Social Democratic Opportunity provides practical flesh to the ideological bones of that social democratic methodology. Using the example of the forward abolition of the 10 per cent tax rate made in the 2007 Budget, it makes the pivotable point that it is ultimately politically counter productive in both electoral and policy outcome terms for a political party wishing to advance social democracy, not to connect and order values, policy, and presentation together in that ascending order.
Back then, trumpeting headline direct tax rate reductions while clawing money back elsewhere without reference to defined economic and social ends, to the ultimate cost of individuals and households that New Labour ‘strategists’ deemed to be electorally less significant than others, led to visible and tangible voter cynicism, disillusionment, and confusion: it also put Gordon Brown’s new government into an early electoral tailspin, as it nailed its colours to an already discredited and tottering Blairite mast.
An evidence-based strategic social democratic 2007 budget, as way of counter-example, that raised the basic tax threshold in order to reduce the tax burden for the low income workers and pensioners facing the highest marginal tax rates, and which concurrently raised taxes on the wealthy in order to help the sums balance, would have helped instead to clearly define Gordon Brown’s social democratic values and intentions. And provided him with a template for the future long-term strategic advance of post-New Labour social democratic politics, with a political banner to march under and engage with the electorate, creating some political blue water some political blue water between him and a new Conservative leader adopting New Labour political methodology in terms of focusing on capturing tactical attention instead of advancing principled, strategic and sustainable social democratic advance within the parameters set by the Conservative tradition and support base.
The Future of the Social Rented Sector highlights that to prevent the children of social housing tenants progressively becoming even more disadvantaged than each previous generation as the tenure divide between them and the rest of society widens, sustainable and radical housing reforms are required. They will need to straddle party political boundaries and involve the replacement of the old model of social housing collectivist provision and entitlement by an expanded and differentiated affordable housing sector that is more open to low and moderate income households generally; a landmark reform that hard social democrats need to ensure are meshed with changes to the income maintenance system that in design and implementation will inherently tend to reduce inequality. In contrast, a move to market rents in isolation will fail to help to make work pay if tax and benefit thresholds are not concurrently extended to the relative advantage of those in low and moderately paid employment.
To succeed, therefore, social democratic reform needs to be both value-led at a strategic level and politically cross-cutting and supportable at the coalface. Asocialdemocraticfuture will champion these essential truths.
Full versions of A Social Democratic Methodology, Housing: A Social democratic Opportunity, and, Housing: A Social democratic Opportunity, can be downloaded from: asocialdemocraticfuture.org, where those wishing to contribute ideas and support to its aims can register, or, alternatively, they can e-mail enquiries {at} asocialdemocratic(.)org.