The Politics of Social Democracy : Issues, Dilemmas, and Future Directions for the Centre-Left

This book addresses the meaning of contemporary social democracy and how the centre-left is navigating through its current identity crisis, through a series of cases of social democratic and labour parties across Europe and the Anglosphere. The book examines the ideological, policy, electoral and organisational dilemmas facing the centre-left. Taking in cases including those from the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand, it outlines and explores the current and future trajectories of the family of centre-left parties. This text will be of key interest to students, scholars and interested readers of labour and social democratic politics, centre-left political parties, trade unions, the future of the centre-left, and more broadly to those studying political parties, European and comparative politics. This book addresses the meaning of contemporary social democracy and how the centre-left is navigating through its current identity crisis, through a series of cases of social democratic and labour parties across Europe and the Anglosphere.The book exami Cover 1 Endorsement 2 Half Title 4 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Table of contents 8 Figures 10 Tables 12 Acknowledgements 14 1 The meaning of social democracy 16 Introduction 16 Understanding social democracy: Models, ideas, actors 17 Social democracy as a model 18 Social democracy as ideology 21 Social democratic actors 22 Linking the elements: The dilemmas of social democracy 23 Theorising social democracy 25 The state of social democracy: Dead, in crisis, or transforming? 29 The death of social democracy 29 The crisis and transition of social democracy 32 Outline of the book 37 Notes 38 2 The ideology of social democracy 40 The identity crisis of social democracy 40 Ideas and ideology 41 Mapping social democracy 42 Social democracy and design values 44 A conservative social democracy? 46 ‘Thin’ social democracy? 49 Note 51 3 Ideological dilemmas 52 Introduction 52 Ideological dilemmas in France 52 Centrist vs radical social democracy in the PS – Valls vs Hamon 54 The ideological contest at the 2017 presidential election 56 Identity crisis in Australia? 58 The Hawke-Keating era 59 The ALP under Rudd and Gillard 59 ALP history shaping the future 60 ‘Technocratic’ social democracy under Shorten’s Labor 63 A left-wards turn – Labour under Corbyn in the UK 65 Corbyn’s new politics 66 Equality and inequality under Corbyn’s Labour 68 Labour’s ‘new’ political economy 69 The role of state and the approach to welfare 70 The morphology of ideology under Corbyn’s Labour 70 The ideological dilemmas of social democracy 72 Notes 73 4 Social democracy and policy change 74 Introduction 74 Mapping policy change 75 Policy change and social democracy 76 Left/Right scale (RILE) 76 Program overlap 82 Third way salience 84 Social democracy and policy change – In summary 86 Policy change and social democracy – Selected cases 87 Internationalism 87 Economic policy 88 The ‘new’ politics 90 Equality and welfare 92 Nationalism, law and order, traditional morality, and multiculturalism 92 Support for social groups 95 In summary – Policy change across nine social democratic parties 98 A new wave of social democracy? Policy change across the social democratic party family 99 Notes 100 5 Dilemmas of political economy 102 Introduction 102 The political economy of social democracy 103 Transformation and dilemmas 104 Neo-liberalism 105 Financialisation and privatised Keynesianism 105 Structural changes, political pressures 106 Postcapitalism and ‘new’ agendas 108 The dilemmas of social democratic political economy 109 Cases of social democratic political economy dilemmas 115 Pasokification in Greece 116 ‘The empty locker’: New threats in Sweden 120 Social democracy constrained – the case of Australia 125 The contradictions of social democratic political economy 129 Notes 130 6 Dilemmas of welfare and social policy 132 Introduction 132 Welfare regimes in context 133 Challenges to the welfare state 134 Exogenous factors 135 Endogenous factors 135 Third way welfare reform – The social investment state 135 The electoral pain of third way welfare reform 137 Social democracy and the welfare state – A new resurgence of support 138 Social democratic welfare agendas 141 The discourse of welfare policy 145 Approaches and strategies to the welfare state 146 Welfare and unemployment 148 Training and education 148 Pensions and aged policy 149 Childcare and gender 149 Social democratic welfare and the future 150 Notes 151 7 Dilemmas of immigration 153 Introduction 153 Immigration and the centre-left 155 Immigration and multiculturalism: Policy change and the centre-left 159 Social democracy and immigration in practice – Cases 164 ‘Flexible’ solidarity and restrictive immigration in Slovakia 164 Breaking the ‘cordon sanitaire’ in Austria 167 Identity crisis in the Netherlands 170 The centre-left tangled up in immigration 173 Notes 173 8 Electoral dilemmas 174 Introduction – The electoral dilemmas of social democracy 174 Social democracy in retreat 175 Social democracy and electoral dilemmas 177 Three dilemmas 177 The social democratic voter 179 The changing sociology of the social democratic voter 184 The re-emergence of class 186 The middle-classing of the centre-left political parties 186 Class and voting in the UK 187 Class, voting, and social democracy 189 Demand-side voting and social democracy 190 Electoral retreat and future strategies 191 Electoral strategies for the centre-left? 192 The electoral rupturing of social democracy 193 Notes 194 9 Dilemmas in office 195 Introduction – The dilemmas of office for social democracy 195 Social democracy and the dilemmas of office 195 The dilemmas of office 196 Coalition formation, ideology, and institutional settings 197 Coalition formation and junior partners 198 Centre left parties in coalition 198 Red-Green coalitions in Denmark 199 The 2011 policy agenda 200 The centre-left since 2019 203 Danish centre-left coalitions – An overview 204 The centre-left on the march: The ‘contraption’ in Portugal 204 Building the ‘contraption’ 206 Trade-offs and compromises: founding the ‘contraption’ 207 Ties that bind – the mechanics of the contraption 208 A fourth way for social democracy? 209 Social democracy under coalition conditions 209 Notes 210 10 Organisational dilemmas 211 Introduction 211 The ‘agony’ of centre-left political parties 213 Declining party membership 213 Declining trade union membership 214 Narrowing representation 216 Reversing the decline – The promise of intra-party democracy? 217 Leadership selection 218 Candidate selection 218 Role of the unions 224 Policy formulation 224 Experiments in democracy – Consultation, community organising, and ‘movementisation’ 225 The social democratic party family in transition 227 Organisational dilemmas at the international level 227 The social democracy party family – The party with no name? 230 Notes 235 11 The next wave of social democracy? 236 The future of social democracy 236 Four waves of social democracy 236 Social democracy: Death, crisis, and transformation 238 Social democracy as a multi dimensional phenomenon 238 Mapping change across the social democratic party family 239 Ideological transformations and dilemmas 239 Shifting left – policy change across the social democratic party family 241 Dilemmas in the electorate, in office, and on the ground 243 Three futures of social democracy: telos, anemia, lightning 244 Telos 245 Anemia 246 Lightning 248 The next wave of social democracy 249 References 251 Appendices 274 Appendix 1 Ideology and policy in the 2017 French presidential election 274 Appendix 2 ALP ideology and policy 1983–2019 278 Appendix 3 Welfare policies, nine social democratic parties 282 Appendix 4 Immigration policies, nine social democratic parties 292 Index 299 "This book addresses the meaning of contemporary social democracy and how the centre-left is navigating through its current identity crisis, through a series of multiple cases of social democratic and labour parties across Europe and the Anglosphere. The book examines the ideological, policy, electoral and organisational dilemmas facing the centre-left. Taking in cases including the UK, Austria, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand, it outlines and explores the current and future trajectories of the family of centre-left parties. This text will be of key interest to students, scholars and interested readers of labour and social democratic politics, centre-left political parties, trade unions, the future of the centre-left, and more broadly to those studying political parties, European and comparative politics"-- Provided by publisher The meaning of social democracy -- The ideology of social democracy -- Ideological dilemmas -- Social democracy and policy change -- Dilemmas of political economy -- Dilemmas of welfare and social policy -- Dilemmas of immigration -- Electoral dilemmas -- Dilemmas in office -- Organisational dilemmas -- The next wave of social democracy? -- Appendices: Ideology and Policy at the 2017 French Presidential Election -- ALP ideology and policy 1983-2019 -- Welfare policies, 9 social democratic parties -- Immigration policies, 9 social democratic parties