debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
The Mission of Social-Democratic Politics Liberal socialism or social democracy emerged in mass form in the late 19th century, with the launch of the Second International on Bastille Day in Paris in 1889—100 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall placed its deformed successor in history’s dustbin. While its participants were often enthused by [...]
One of our era’s foundational myths is that globalization has condemned the nation-state to irrelevance. The revolution in transport and communications, we hear, has vaporized borders and shrunk the world. New modes of governance, ranging from transnational networks of regulators to international civil-society organizations to multilateral institutions, are transcending and supplanting national lawmakers. Domestic policymakers, [...]
‘9/11’ is a term known across the world. The notion of the ‘war on terror’ reached across continents. ‘Sub-prime markets’ was a concept of the few before it became widely understood as a trigger of the global financial crisis. Weather patterns in southern Africa used to be understood as an act of God; they are [...]
The left needs to work hard to recreate an effective and convincing transnational political programme. A cosmopolitan social democracy can lead a new social front to tame and regulate the most disruptive forms of capitalism whilst preserving its dynamism. Globalisation is often considered responsible for increasing, rather than decreasing, inequalities. And it is increasing inequalities [...]
The cosmopolitan ethos is in bad shape, yet transformational politics overwhelmingly depends on our ability to govern on many different levels Today, crises are everywhere. The financial and economic crisis of 2008 spiralled into a fiscal crisis, and the subsequent debt crisis has enveloped the eurozone in an outright fight for its survival. Conventional wisdom [...]
There is a widespread concern across the European left that, as in the 1930s, a structural crisis of capitalism, far from automatically precipitating a radical shift in public opinion, risks being successfully exploited by the populist right. This would not only destroy what is left of the post-1945 social-democratic consensus but would redefine politics, in [...]
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