Tag archive for ‘Europe’
The Future of Social Democracy is European
Social Democracy has always been an idea and a strategy of social change. As a progressive movement it has always been on the offensive. When in the 1980s market-radical theories, supported by neo-conservatives and neo-liberals, began to dominate public opinion, the defensive mechanisms of social democracy proved to be rather poor. There was scattered resistance, [...]
A Deafening Silence
Social democracy has nothing distinctive to say about many of the problems we currently face.
An ominous paradox hangs over the battered ranks of European social democracy. By rights, this should be a social-democratic moment. The economic crisis of the last two years has shown beyond doubt that the neoliberal economic paradigm which has dominated [...]
What a Post-American World means for Europe
In recent months, Europe has learned some hard lessons about its transatlantic partner. President Barack Obama triggered great hope when he replaced George W. Bush at the American helm. But a year later, especially following Obama’s failure to produce anything of substance at Copenhagen, Europeans are realizing that Obama is going to have a difficult [...]
Where now for Social Democracy in Europe?
A positive future for social democracy depends upon a genuine political commitment to social and environmental justice.
In the first half of the twentieth century, social democracy fundamentally transformed the European social and political landscape. Recognising the need to temper the injustices inherent in the capitalist economic system, the proponents of social democratic ideology strove for [...]
A New Social Democracy for Europe
Only through offering a new vision for these new times will social democrats be able to renew themselves and create a more just and prosperous Europe.
The crisis of the SPD in Germany is matched by a crisis of European social democracy as a whole. Only a third of the member states of the European Union [...]
The need for a new Socialist Politics
Are social democrats capable of responding to the opportunities for renewed support for socialism that are offered by the present crisis?
Social democrats have lost ground in Europe during the last few years. The SPD fell to a historical low in the Germany federal election last year, French socialists have been in decline since the last [...]
Some Points on the Future
More ideas for the future of social democracy
I offer here a number of points on the discussion.
Firstly, we need to focus on the future: ‘building the future’ needs to be considered as a main dimension of every part of our work. We need to underline constantly that we intend to build the future, just as [...]
The Future of Social Democracy
Though social democracy has had its problems, it offers a politics that can be developed and broadened to encompass the needs of the present.
Social democracy faces testing times in Europe and elsewhere, but the pessimism can be overdone. We should avoid both the politics of nostalgia and the politics of despair. An example of 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 [...]
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. [...]
