debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
After the financial crash of 2008 a great number of observers expected an end of neoliberalism as the dominant principle in economic policy. However, policy change did not occur. Quite the opposite, after a short period of Keynesianism in 2009 governments have returned to neoliberal politics. The 2010 sovereign debt crisis brought about a more [...]
In recent decades there has often been negative misunderstanding around the issue of equality in public debate. Even more recently, a centre left member of the Italian parliament publicly advocated a welfare strategy that focused almost totally on the poorest and most discriminated groups. In his view the welfare state should become less and less [...]
It is no coincidence that the ideas of Karl Polanyi once again catch attention. From his experiences of interwar Austria, which he fled in 1933, he drew the conclusion that the ‘re-embedding’ of the economy under post-liberal conditions was not necessarily a progressive development. The response to a free-market society producing poverty for the masses [...]
Freedom, solidarity and some notion of equality have become the core values of many, maybe most, political parties across the political spectrum. The political left, however, is characterised by its firm conviction that freedom and equality do not stand against each other; rather, they are mutually dependant. There can be no free society without a [...]
The latest twist in the eternal debate over equality is the position currently adopted by neo-liberal politicians and expressed particularly clearly by the British Labour Party’s former prime minister, Tony Blair. In a rich society, it is argued, the great majority (say the top 80-85% of the income and wealth distribution) is materially so well [...]
Frank Rich, a leading NYT op-ed columnist, observed in a recent issue of the voice of the liberal America: “economic equality seemed within reach in 1956, at least for the vast middle class. The sense that the American promise of social and economic mobility was attainable to anyone who sought it…” That was, he reminds [...]
Social justice and equality are contested terrains as much among ordinary people as among philosophers. In the absence of divine or natural justice, and of an objective definition of socially fair outcomes, post-enlightenment thinkers have in recent decades focused more on just institutions and fair processes than on a substantive definition of justice. Unfairly simplifying [...]
When we started the initiative for the Good Society – during what became the most severe economic crisis since the 1920ies – our starting point was: There is an alternative. We do have a choice. We do not have to go back to unbalanced growth that leads into crises. We do not have to accept [...]
No one disputes that equality and justice belong together. Having said that, everyone is clear that they are not the same. Since Aristotle established justice as proportional equality there have been countless attempts to refine the relationship between the two. For the purposes of discussion I shall examine two current issues: First, How much inequality [...]
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this historical period is that in spite of an amazing spate of social progress in many areas, that we seem to be backtracking in the crucial area of equality. It would have been both difficult and disappointing to anticipate in the 70s and 80s that a few decades later we [...]
The left gets out of bed for equality. We are born equal. We should live equal lives. It is a noble aim. It has fuelled social democracy, its governments, its policies and its troops for a century and a half. But in Britain at least the poor are getting poorer and are about to get [...]
At the beginning of this series, Thomas Pogge highlighted the close relationship between equality and justice and the connection between these factors and the principles of a democratic society. Within any system, the ability for wealth and power to become concentrated within certain groups has a fundamental impact on a state’s capacity to ensure a [...]
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