debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The Italian elections have again revealed the degree of political discontent with ‘austerity Europe’. The only good news, as Paolo Borioni made clear, is that in contrast to countries such as Greece Italy’s protest vote did not lead to a strengthening of extreme political forces. When I visited Athens about a week ago this graffiti [...]
The history of economics is largely a struggle between two opposing schools of thought, “liberalism” and “mercantilism.” Economic liberalism, with its emphasis on private entrepreneurship and free markets, is today’s dominant doctrine. But its intellectual victory has blinded us to the great appeal – and frequent success – of mercantilist practices. In fact, mercantilism remains [...]
In 2009 Jon Cruddas and Andrea Nahles published a short pamphlet, Building the Good Society and with the support of Compass and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation it has been debated across Europe. A study by Goettingen University cites this Good Society debate as the most influential current in European Social Democracy. Three years later we [...]
Redistribution under Britain’s New Labour government was aimed at minimum opportunities for the poor, rather than equal outcomes. But when inequality widened under Prime Ministers Blair and Brown it was as much to do with the kind of capitalism they promoted as timidity in their policies for redistribution [1]. Current Labour leader Ed Miliband said last [...]
Paul Krugman posted this interesting video explaining what Occupy Wall Street is all about on his New York Times blog. It also features several authors, including Krugman and Robert Reich, who contributed to the Occupy Handbook. Have a look, it is worthwhile watching.
Current debates within the European socialist movement on the way forward for the Centre-Left, often seem to be centred on the unnecessarily narrow field of “state versus market”. Much of the debate revolves around questions of the “correct ratio” of state-to-market in the provision of public goods and services, with scant attention given to the [...]
I have just arrived in Chicago to talk about the Eurozone crisis at a conference organised by the Goethe Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. It is very easy to become self-centred given the enormous problems we have in Europe. But a protest right in front of my hotel served as a timely [...]
The state occupies a central place in social democratic thinking. It is the vehicle through which policies are delivered. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the growth of the modern state was a forerunner of the social democratic movement. Today, it is impossible to think about social democracy without considering the role of the state. But the relationship is not without [...]
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a few days ago, said the “critical risks” facing the American economy this year were a worsening of Europe’s chronic sovereign debt crisis and a rise in tensions with Iran that could stoke global oil prices. What about jobs and wages here at [...]
In a panel discussion at New York University last month, Immanuel Wallerstein, Michael Mann, Craig Calhoun and other noted speakers addressed the question, “Does Capitalism Have a Future?” There wasn’t a consensus on the panel. At one extreme, Wallerstein described a capitalist system unable to sustain itself because of underconsumption and a growing international labor [...]
Meryl Streep’s eery reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” brings to mind Thatcher’s most famous quip, “there is no such thing as ‘society.’” None of the dwindling herd of Republican candidates has quoted her yet but they might as well considering their unremitting bashing of everything public. What defines a society is a [...]
The re-emergence of ‘the European question’ in British politics should come as no surprise whatsoever to the few Labour types based in the Tory heartlands. Britain’s continued membership of the European Union is practically the only issue which stirs the otherwise comatose political consciousness in the Home Counties – all tied in, inextricably, with feelings [...]
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