debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Thanks very much for inviting me here this evening; not least because it allows me to talk about philosophy, society and socialism. Believe me as a Labour MP this does not happen very often. I have been a MP for ten years. I went with Tony Blair into Downing St in 1997 and spent three [...]
As the mostly centre right governments of Europe rushed a few years back to save their economies by rediscovering the state, many talked of the triumphant return of Neo-Keynesianism. However, they spoke too soon. What followed, as the danger of immediate financial collapse was averted, was a harsh return to the previous orthodoxy and to [...]
“Vous verrez, Antoine; dans quelques années ils feront comme si je n’avais jamais existé…” (You’ll see, Antoine; in a few years they’ll act as if I never existed…”) remarks the dying President Mitterrand to his idealistic young biographer in the Robert Guédiguian film Le Promeneur du Champs de Mars. Yet sixteen years after Mitterrand’s death, [...]
There has been much talk about the crisis of social democracy and the shortcomings of the progressive agenda as the key explanation. Without disputing the priority of designing the right programme, I’d like to stress another important factor: the collapse of communities. Our societies are increasingly fragmented. Once large-scale communities make place for smaller groups [...]
Britain’s role in the EU under the current Cameron Government is that of a petulant child which is throwing its toys out of the pram, rather than being a constructive partner in managing the challenges we all face. A potential future for Britain in Europe seems more at risk than for a long time – [...]
European Industry in the Global Competition Europe risks falling behind The financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis, macroeconomic imbalances, and intra-European tensions are leaving their mark. Europe is in danger of falling behind in the global competition. International rivals in Southeast Asia and North America are revealing Europe’s weaknesses. While countries around the world are [...]
In the wake of the pan-European search for a new social democratic vision, the discussion about social democratic basic values and their meaning for today’s politics has taken centre stage again. What are social democratic basic values and have social democratic parties betrayed them in government? Or, even worse, have they been lost altogether? If [...]
We have entered an age of fear. Insecurity is once again an active ingredient of political life in Western democracies. Insecurity born of terrorism, but also, and more insidiously, fear of the uncontrollable speed of change, fear of the loss of employment, fear of losing ground to others in an increasingly unequal distribution of resources, [...]
Who needs the state? Interventions in the financial sector by governments during the crisis show that it is capitalism that needs the state in order to survive yet again. But the ones the state should serve first and foremost are the people: it should protect them from the excesses of the ‘invisible hand of the market’ and ensure [...]
Social democracy in Europe today is split regarding the role the state should play. Actually social democratic thinking has never been uniform about this question, and our positions have changed over time (including etatist, technological approaches as well as emancipative ideas of civil self-organisation). Concerning Europe we have participated in building our supranational structure with [...]
The basic demands of the French Revolution – Liberty, Egality and Fraternity – are also the basic values of German Social Democracy: Freedom, Justice and Solidarity. “Freedom” here is not used in the narrower liberal sense of formal freedom under the law or the free-for-all of economic markets, but rather means the concrete legal, social, [...]
Europe is on the move; new thinking is emerging among social democrats. This is what I discovered at the meeting on the Renaissance of Europe organized by four important think tanks, FEPS, Fondation Jean Jaures, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Italianieuropei in Paris on 16-17 March. Social democrats do not want to see Europe die. In [...]
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