Left Out?-

How Europe’s Social Democrats can fight

back

Dr Henning Meyer (PhD, MBA, MA)Public Policy Group, London School of Economics and Political ScienceSocial Europe

Structure

The Third Way, the global economic crisis and why there was no social democratic moment

A future for European social democracy: The Good Society

The Good Society’s global dimension: Towards a global social democracy to shape social and economic change

Conclusion

Third Way I

Was the outbreak of the economic crisis a social democratic moment? Market failure has long been a social democratic topic

No social democratic moment so far. Why?

Reasons lie in the social democratic trajectory of recent decades

Third Way II

After unsuccessful period the social democratic programme was identified as the problem - US inspired Third Way reforms

Different degrees of ‘neoliberalisation’ of social democracy and ‚economisation‘ of more and more policy areas (social policy, education, ...)

Has created fears of rapid social decline and increased precarious work for example in Germany

Third Way III

Initially successful at the ballot box. Worked in a time when the political economy was perceived to work – cleavages not so obvious

Result however was a loss of identity, authenticity and trust. What is distinctive about social democracy?

Problems became apparent when the crisis broke out and the system was no longer considered to work

Third Way IV

The crisis asked for political alternatives addressing inherent market instability, spread of risk and responsibility throughout societies and progressing social polarisiation

Because of previous development social democracy suffered from two structural problems

First, because of move towards neoliberalism the development of political alternatives was neglected

Third Way V

Second, the policies implemented in government made social democrats ‘collaborators in a failed system’ in the eyes of many voters

The question is: how can social democratic fortunes be turned around?

Third Way VI

The Good Society I

Social democracy has to renew itself in turbulent times (European crisis in particular)

Creation of a vision of a Good Society based on social democratic basic values (freedom, justice, solidarity) as a political compass

The core of the Good Society is the rebalancing of the mutual relationships between markets, governments and civil society - no ‘big society’

The Good Society II A dynamic and sustainable economy is no

end in itself but a means to improve the welfare of all citizens (not just a few at the top) - inequality, participation and stakeholding as key challenges

New stakeholding also involves the re-development of communitarian roots of social democracy

Obama has recently called inequality as the “defining issue of our time” against the backdrop of the development of inequality in the US

The Good Society III Why is inequality such a big issue? Four

points by Paul Krugman

First, since 2000 income of bottom 90% is 8% lower than it would have been if inequality remained stable. Output gap only 6% so massive economic blow

Second, propensity to save on top and borrow at bottom was contributing factor to the development of the economic crisis

The Good Society IV Third, there is a political economy

argument as rising inequality corresponds with increasing political power of the top. One argument to explain austerity agenda in wake of the crisis

Fourth, inequality and its complex origins are less well understood than basic macroeconomics and shining a light on this could help change the dynamics – hence not in the interest of the ones benefitting at the moment

The Good Society V Long-term issues such as inequality need

more than ‘pragmatic’ day-to-day management. This is linked to the style of politics

Change of politics from ‚transactional‘ to ‚transformative‘ (as Steve Jobs approach was in business)

Need for political innovation - transformative concept that can convince electorate rather than just supplying politics of the moment (opinion polls)

The Good Society VI The Good Society is a toolbox and thus

significantly different than previous reform projects - open for adjustment in different countries by design

This toolbox offers a shared value base, value-driven analysis and a collection of policies and good practise

These provisions keep the reform project coherent but at the same time adaptive for different circumstances

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Global Dimension I The Good Society addresses issues that

are supranational in scope so there is a need to connect with discourses beyond Europe - Good Society global efforts

Discursive and political alliances are becoming increasingly important

There is also a need for a global idea of social democracy that continues to develop institutions where they are missing (polity) and elaborates policies where they are implementable

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Global Dimension II

This is a break with Third Way as it was pro-globalisation in rhetoric, its scope of action however was very much nationally limited - No EU project at end of 1990s

Some recent reform ideas such as Blue Labour on the other hand have tended to fade out supranational issues (‘One Nation Labour’?) and thus have neglected this dimension

The task hence is a symbiosis of a communitarian and cosmopolitan dimension of social democracy – Good Society could be a model

Global Dimension III

Social democracy needs to shape social and economic change - 'Globalisation' was only the beginning. The 'Digital Revolution' will bring unprecedented technological change in times of Gramscian interregnum

Analysis of emergence of European populism shows what the key problems are: social insecurity, erosion of social institutions and unprecedented lack of trust in mainstream politics

Conclusion

European social democracy is in a very difficult position and even the rare electoral successes cannot cloud this fact - France

Willy Brandt: 'There is no point in winning a majority for social democracy if the price is ceasing to be a social democrat'

Aftermath of the economic crisis without clear alternative model combined with digital revolution are driving insecurity

Conclusion II

Transactional politics has reached its end and parties wedded to this are not seen as viable political alternatives – reinforcing the lack of trust

The God Society is a value-based approach designed to regain trust and shape the drivers of insecurity

By doing so it combines positive ambition for a better future with a trustworthy politics that recreates security and belonging