Five years ago, twenty or so social democrats in and around the British Labour Party, politicians, academics, journalists and activists sat in a seminar room in a college in London’s Regents Park. The topic of debate was how to describe the Good Society. The discussion led to a Compass publication in 2006.
Fast-forward five years to Ed Miliband’s first speech as the new leader of the Labour Party in Manchester last Tuesday. He used the reference point of the Good Society again and again. He did so in the context of regulating markets and looking at the quality of peoples’ lives – the issues beyond money that we value like spending time with the people we love.
It is early days in the reign of Ed Miliband. The new generation is fragile, but the notion of the Good Society is critical to the future of social democracy – a social democracy that is in crisis. The results in Sweden the weekend before the Labour conference showed how bad things have got. The Social Democrats got just 30% of the votes: Their worst result in over 100 years and the only time they have lost two elections in a row. It follows hard on the heels of Labour’s 29% in the UK and 23% for the SPD in Germany. The globalisation of capital, the spread of a more individualistic culture and the decline in working class salience are the causes of this crisis. New Labour tried to paper over all these cracks, but failed.
In adopting the frame of the Good Society, Miliband offers a way out of the crisis. Social democracy has to present not just a fix to the problems of living in a capitalist society, but a vision of something altogether different and better. This is a wild tiger we can’t hope to ride – we have to tame it.
What we are witnessing today in different forms across Europe is that social democracy does not work within a neo-liberal framework. Although the pace might be slower, even when our parties are in office, the poor still get poorer and the planet still burns. That is because even when we are in office, we are not in power. The dominant ideology is still neo-liberalism and the dominant forces in business and the media are on the right. Critically for us, our parties and movement just shrink because we are no longer delivering either enough practical help or any future hope. The countervailing forces we need – through the party, the unions and civil society – just become diminished. The knot tightens. We end up promising less and doing less.
The notion of the Good Society matters because it changes the terms of debate. If we start from what we value, then issues of time, care, more control over our lives, and sustainability begin to trump money, labour market flexibility and consumption. The failure of social democracy has been not to offer both a critique of modern capitalism as well as an alternative to it. Only by doing both can we win the debate on tax and spending, only then can we put people before profits and cooperation before competition. Only through the lens of the Good Society can social democracy reestablish itself.
We are still at the foothills of the debate on what constitutes a Good Society. Of course there is not one but many good societies. We have to fight to bring ours to life. But by at last re-entering the debate, social democrats give themselves a lifeline. What are the hopes and fears that people have? What do they value about their lives, what do they want more of and less of? Once we know answers to these questions, we have to design an economy and a state that will deliver what people want. Then, and only then, will we be addressing the causes of the problems we face – and not just symptoms.
In Britain, the political battle lines are being drawn between the Big Society and the Good Society. In Germany, the SPD is now using the frame of the Good Society and PASOK in Greece too is showing increasing interest, knowing that they have to offer more than just an answer to the question of how to deal with austerity.
The long march of social democracy may be starting again. Let’s see.
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And just to add, Neal, that the 'good society' can no longer be narrowly national. Part too of the failing of social democracy has been its inability to offer sufficiently transnational solutions to global problems and to make meaningful the idea of global civic society. But the fact that the Good Society debate is spreading and that we have Social Europe as such an excellent vehicle for discussion are important steps in the right direction.
Thanks for your praise Robin. We'll do our best to spread the good society further. A six week debate on political economy will start on Monday. Stay tuned for more…
I'm afraid that a ''global civic society'' (what in god's name is that?) is not the right direction to take to bridge the gap between social-democracy and their classical constituencies. The Global Good Society? Just try one at home first! Part of the problem is that social-democarts have a hollow global and European ideological rhetorics 'without balls, w'hich has no cloud against the dominant neoliberal business and expert community, but alieanates people from our project.
I do like Nigel's phrase: when we are in government, we are not in power. Wise observation.