debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Winning progressive parties in the 1990s were those that had learnt the lessons of the 1980s: that division, disorganisation and an obsession with a core left vote was no way to win. As a consequence from Blair and New Labour to Schroeder and the SPD’s Neue Mitte, progressive parties in the ‘90s embraced change through [...]
In most European countries there is a majority of people who could be reached by social democratic values and politics. Nevertheless social democratic parties have not been able to convince this majority over recent years. Some of the reasons for this development have been policy-decisions of social democratic parties, especially in government. But our parties [...]
When the votes were counted after the re-election in the northeastern constituency of Örebro, the Social Democrats increased their votes in all electoral districts in the area, with a total of 47.2% of the votes. In no part of the constituency the result was less than 30.6% (which is what the Social Democrats received nationally [...]
There are two tales about party politics. In the first, political parties are moribund, if not on their last legs. Parties are said to have been in crisis or decline for decades and are believed to have lost virtually all their functions to the courts, the bureaucracy, the media, or powerful social organizations. Parties supposedly [...]
After the recent Italian referendum and local elections, Berlusconi’s power seems to be very severely struck. Given the prime minister’s boundless economic and media power, this event shows (once again!) that the Italian electorate remain remarkably independent and reactive. Having said that, Italian democracy has been of bad quality for the last 20 years. One [...]
I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for over 30 years. I have seen some of the best our Party has to offer – a clear vision for a better, fairer world and a commitment to work hard to achieve these goals. We have been a great force for positive change and development for [...]
In analysing a key organisational challenge for social democracy, I recently wrote that “[s]ocial democratic parties are for the most part unable to engage the identities of citizens; they are perceived as campaign vehicles and administrators of certain ideas rather than core institutions of an extended ideological community.” I promised to follow up on this [...]
The so-called Spanish Revolution movement that has peacefully taken over the Spanish squares in the last weeks has voiced a clear demand of our times, which many citizens across Europe share: more open, effective and closer democratic institutions. However, it is not so much the democratic reform requests and proposals that this platform has put [...]
A lively democracy can only work as an inclusive narrative; a narrative that is developed in an open debate. It is shared in society because everybody can join the debate and have a say. This inclusive narrative is the precondition for social cohesion, for peace, for a good society. Democracy has been invented on the [...]
I read with interest the historical-led piece by Robin Wilson ‘The New Social Democracy – Towards Pluralist Network Parties’ (31 May, 2011) and Simon Lightfoot’s contemporary-oriented piece asked: ‘How can the PES connect to European Citizens?’ a day later. Both expressed a desire to see a more prominent role for the PES. I concur with [...]
Form follows function. What are social democratic party’s for and therefore how should they be structured? In the era of what we could call social democracy 1.0 when unions were big, production was bigger and the state and power heavily centralized the goal was the administration of power from the top down. War socialism meant [...]
In Britain there is no question that the mainstream political parties and a growing minority of the people no longer relate to one another, but while the political classes talk of reconnecting people with politics there is little understanding that it is politics that needs to reconnect with people. The very existence of ‘political classes’ [...]
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