Tag archive for ‘Labour’
Democratic Politics beyond the Third Way
Social democrats have a strong claim on democracy, and for good reason. First, their opposition to Soviet-style communism and their commitment to parliamentary democracy marked the beginning of their journey towards power.
Second, as soon as the alliance with the liberals fulfilled the goal of equality in political representation for the working class, they set their [...]
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
In 2002 I published an article on a maximum wage in the centre-left theory journal Renewal. The idea of putting a ceiling on what people could earn was left-field, to say the least. It was more a thought experiment than a serious attempt to influence political debate. The article and the idea sank without much [...]
UK’s Labour Government to Push for a Windfall Tax on Banks
The BBC’s Business Editor Robert Peston has announced on his blog that the UK Treasury plans a windfall tax on banks, most likely to be announced next Wednesday in the Pre-Budget Report. Even though the details are not decided yet the reasoning for the one-off tax, that is likely to target bonus payments, is clear:
“It [...]
Time for a twenty-first Century Social Democracy
Social democrats need a new understanding of the historic compromises that are necessary for the practice of power.
The German election defeat followed on from losses for social democratic parties in the European Parliament elections. To be sure, socialists kept power in Portugal and Norway, but without a majority of votes. And PASOK’s win in Greece was based on a new politics, [...]
Beyond the Third Way
Angela Merkel´s recent victory confirms what many already knew – Europe´s social democratic parties have failed to distill any political benefit from the association between the right’s reverence for unfettered markets and the economic crises that grip the continent.
Historically, Europeans turn to conservatives in times of crisis. But today, the situation is more complex. In [...]
The Rollercoaster of EU Politics
It’s time to take our seats on the thrilling rollercoaster ride that is European Union politics. The next three months will be one long white knuckle ride with political careers being made, broken and in some cases smashed to smithereens. By Christmas the EU could be forging ahead with new dynamism and confidence or it [...]
Lack of Political Will is real Block to Tobin
Some things are conspicuous by their absence and the deafening silence that greeted Lord Turner’s call for a Tobin tax last week from the political left, sadly rates as one of them.
The end of the political holiday season might be argued to be an excuse for this absence of support. But after a savage year [...]
The Social Democratic Challenge
Social democracy, in any meaningful sense of the word, has been in crisis for decades. Even amongst the Nordics the game for years has been accommodation to capital and not leadership of it. In the immediate post-war years social democracy set the agenda, next came a period of capital accommodating itself to our social agenda [...]