Good Society Debate
Who will be the Builders of the Good Society?
A reflection on the good society debate so far.
The good society debate will restart on 11 January, with ten final articles. More than eighty people from across Europe have taken part so far. Thank you to everyone for this successful experiment in collective thinking and discussion. I think it is the first of its kind. [...]
Towards a Convivial Society?
We need a realistic utopia – a good place that can really exist.
Since the times of Plato there has been an abundance of grand visions for a perfect social future; however, developments in reality have always proved to be far more modest than what was envisaged in the philosophical musings or political strivings in the [...]
A Project for the Future: Recover the Essential Role of the Ethical and Cultural Factors
Social-democratic plans for the future should take more account of the ethical and moral spheres.
A European paradox: the continent is turning towards the centre right just when the largest financial and economic crisis since the second world war has demonstrated the resounding failure of the free market economy and fundamentalist liberalism that have dominated the [...]
A Good Society and a Good Life
We need to resist the neoliberal tendency to reduce everything to the economic.
Neoliberalism has not only led to the reorganisation of all sectors of society in accordance with market principles; it has also implied a fundamental redefinition of human life in terms of economic criteria. As well as reframing fundamental political and social ideas like [...]
Taking on the Social Liberals
Social democrats – you can’t do anything with them and you can’t do anything without them.
At the turn of the millennium the bases of social democracy were visibly crumbling. Not only had George Bush won the election against Al Gore in 2000, not only did the socialists in welfare state par excellence Denmark lose to [...]
Social Democracy without a Future?
The new generation of social democrats will need a better strategy than third-wayism.
The financial crisis is also the crisis of social democracy. Paradoxically, it is the right that has come out of crisis more strongly, generally by being better social democrats than social democrats themselves. Or, at least, so they would have us believe. The [...]
Lisbon: A Chance for Social Democracy
The Lisbon treaty opens up a new era for the EU, with new opportunities for social democrats.
November 2009 was the twentieth anniversary of an event that has exerted an historic influence over the image and integration of the ‘old continent’ – an event which was itself a product of major European and world political trends. [...]
Our Aim should be a Fundamental Rebalancing of Economic Power
Compensatory redistribution in the form of the welfare state is not on its own enough to redress the inequalities generated by capitalism.
At the beginning of this debate Poul Nyrup Rasmussen highlighted what several other contributors have agreed is an apparent paradox: the ideology of market fundamentalism lies thoroughly discredited by the failure of its economic [...]
Good Work: Efficiency, Equity and Voice
Work is a crucial part of the good society – as are trade unions.
I want to make the case for good work as a vital part of the good society, and for the role that the trade union movement plays in securing and sustaining good work.
Employment is central to people’s lives in a modern society. [...]
Ukrainian Social Democracy: Discredited in Name, Deficient in Nature
The SPDU(u), like many similar projects in the CIS countries, was a travesty of all aspects of social democracy.
‘You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.’
Abraham Lincoln
Over hundred years ago the ‘founding [...]
Next Steps for Social Democracy: An American Perspective
Europe still has a role to play as a beacon for social-democratic values.
As an American, I have been following this discussion with great interest. The predicament of social democracy strikes at the heart of several modern dilemmas that will be at the forefront of the twenty-first century. Much hangs in the balance.
From the faraway shores [...]
Time to Reboot Politics
The evidence is there for the social-democratic case. It is time we put it forward properly.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that right here, right now, British politics is in a mess. Moats, duckhouses and now a bell-tower … It seems the political class are living on a different planet from the rest of us. [...]
