European Social democracy

1. European Social democracy Dr Henning Meyer London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Social Europe Journal Current Challenges and Solutions

2. Structure • Introduction • Structural Problems of Social Democracy • The Third Way and the Blue Labour Reaction • The Good Society: Cosmopolitanism and Communitarianism United • The current Crisis of the European Union and the Opportunity for a new Politics • Conclusion and Discussion

3. Introduction • Social Democracy in crisis across Europe  series of lost elections • Recent successes must not be misunderstood  own strength vs. weakness of political opponents • The ‘social democratic moment’ after the financial crisis never happened • Time of reflection and new thinking about the next stage of social democracy • Good Society process of Social Europe Journal and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung • Examples from British Labour party and SPD but problems are widespread

4. Programmatic Problems • The main reason for Third Way social democratic reforms of 1990s was tiredness of losing elections on national level • Believe that social democratic politics was not in line with what people wanted  need for a new programme • In terms of content the new political programme represented approximation to neo-liberal mainstream • Understandable from electoral point of view but implicitly meant no alternative politics was developed • When the crisis hit there was no credible alternative politics  even blame of collaboration in failing project

5. programmatic Problems II • Third Way as primarily also reversed politics process. Development of ideas first and then competing in elections? Or is winning elections paramount and the political programme is designed towards this end? • Third Way in particular to uncritical about ‘progress’ and ‘globalisation’ • Third Way better than the conservative/liberal alternative but is a more social mainstream good enough?

6. Electoral strategy Problems • The Third Way in political practice was above all an electoral strategy based on rational-voter assumptions • Serious doubts about rational voter models in general – George Lakoff’s work suggests identity and trust more important • Result was a reactive brand of politics designed by triangulation that surrendered much of its transformative character for the sake of chasing public opinion

7. Organisational problems • Third Way also often went hand in hand with further centralisation of power in professional party headquarters • Reinforced and amplified the general tendency of parties turning into professional electoral parties at the expense of their movement character and societal roots • Example of 19th century SPD experience (newspapers, sports clubs, educational leagues)  not membership but a way of life • Close cultural, economic and social embededness in society also a way to absorb the Zeitgeist • Used to be source of strength but today parties suffer from dwindling memberships and have largely lost their movement character

8. Uncritical Progress and The Blue LabourReaction • ‘progress’ and ‘progressive’ have been key words in Third Way politics and are still at the centre of programmatic debates • As currently discussed within SPD ‘new progress’ is an insufficient concept as it seeks to combine ideas of technological and societal progress  does not work • ‘progress’ also too uncritical of change (what progress really means) • ‘progress’ does not provide a normative grounding for a new social democratic concept • New Labour’s uncritical view of globalisation a good example how blind believe in ‘progress’ can go wrong

9. Uncritical Progress and The Blue LabourReaction II • New Labour defined social policy as enabling to compete in a global marketplace that was largely externally shaped and a fact of life • Focus on poverty but not inequality and blindness to the local and wider social consequences of unchallenged economic globalization • Blue Labour is an intellectual counter reaction to the uncritical believe of New Labour in its version of ‘progress’  new communitarian social democracy • It focuses on the national and the local as well as the relationship rather than the transactional character of politics

10. Uncritical Progress and The Blue LabourReaction IIi • Labour is a paradoxical tradition, far richer than its present impoverished mix of economic utilitarianism and political liberalism. (...) Labourvalues are not abstract universal values such as ‘freedom’ or ‘equality’. Distinctive labour values are rooted in relationships, in practices that strengthen an ethical life. Practices like reciprocity, which gives substantive form to freedom and equality in an active relationship of give and take; or mutuality, where we share the benefits and burdens of association. (…) The Labour tradition has never been straightforwardly progressive – and that is not a defect which we are on the verge of overcoming, but a tremendous strength that will offer the basis of renewal. • Maurice Glasman 2011

11. Uncritical Progress and The Blue Labour Reaction iv • Unsurprisingly the weakness of Blue Labour thinking lies in the negligence of regional and global political issues • Citizens are rooted in national and local communities but necessarily also part of the global context and subject to global developments • So if New Labour’s neoliberal style ‘progress’ has failed and ‘Blue Labour’ has significant shortcomings too, what is the way forward? • The way forward lies in the synthesis of communitarian and cosmopolitan social democracy

12. The good society: communitarianism and cosmopolitanism united • If ‘progress’ is the wrong ‘brand’ for the new social democracy, what should it be? • Good Society a more accurate description • ‘Society’ means people are at the heart of social democratic politics • It also means that the continuous balancing out of the three dimensions of society (civil society, economy, state) is the task of social democracy • Adjective ‘good’ gives it an additional normative dimension, linking society with social democratic values

13. The good society: communitarianism and cosmopolitanism united II • Social democracy needs to become a transformative political force again (analysis of circumstances and development of alternatives on the basis of values)  More political and less focused on narrow electoral strategy • A new communitarianism needs to be part of a new social democracy  link also to lost movement character and the regrowing of societal roots (although new ways for doing so are required) • This communitarianism must not be romantic and closed but link directly into a new cosmopolitan dimension of social democracy • New Labour’s was not cosmopolitan but neoliberal in its outlook

14. The good society: communitarianism and cosmopolitanism united IIi • Cosmopolitan Principles: • equal worth and dignity • active agency • personal responsibility and accountability • consent • collective decision‐making about public matters through voting procedures • inclusiveness and subsidiarity • avoidance of serious harm • sustainability • David Held 2011

15. The good society: communitarianism and cosmopolitanism united iv • No brand of social democracy could disagree with any of these core cosmopolitan values • The key difference between a neoliberal and a cosmopolitan understanding of globalisation is agency (mode of action affecting the world) • Globalisation must be understood a something political that ought to be shaped rather than a given externally generated factor • Regional and global spaces need to become active parts of the political process

16. A New Political Economy • Especially in the area of political economy there are significant changes needed • No international division of labour on a national scale but competing mixed economies • The utilitaristic view of the economy needs to be complemented by a sociological view • Potential to lead to greater happiness and well-being as well as to more efficiency • The craftsmanship concept of Richard Sennett is an interesting approach in this respect

17. A New Political Economy ii • The carpenter, lab technician, and conductor are all craftsmen because they are dedicated to good work for its own sake. Theirs is practical activity, but their labour is not simply a means to another end. (…) • Most men and women today spend the largest chunk of their waking hours in getting to work, working, and socialising with people they know at work. The desire to do a good job is one way to make these hours matter. Competence and engagement - the craftsman's ethos - appear to be the most solid source of adult self-respect, according to many studies conducted in Britain and the US. • Richard Sennett 2008

18. Europe’s current crisis • If you believe that regional and global spaces need to be understood as political spaces the current European crisis provides an opportunity in the years ahead (hopefully!) • There are effectively two stages of the crisis: • the firefighting against the immediate economic and political consequences of sovereign debt crises • The reconstruction of the EU as a multitier system with a reformed Eurozone at its core (EU17 + 10?) • Clear opportunities for alternative policies in stage 1 crisis: austerity is not working. Necessary adjustments only realistically possible alongside a comprehensive growth strategy (Marshall Plan or otherwise)

19. Europe’s current crisis ii • Myth of spending = money down the drain. Need to go back to fundamentals of investment and growth • Myth of the stability and growth pact: random figures, counterproductive in special circumstances, meaningless in general crises and incapable of tracking origins of fiscal problems • When it comes to the reconstruction in stage 2 social democrats need to come up with a comprehensive reform agenda to enshrine a social Europe (ending love – hate relationship with EU) • Also advocating fundamental reform of the financial sector in EU and G20

20. Europe’s current crisis iii • Advocating new global governance institutions with more bite (example of G20 reform) • Taking up the missed opportunity of 2008 to advocate a root and branch reform of the financial sector (separation of retail and investment banking, limiting the systemic risk individual banks pose, ending moral hazard, …) • Every crisis also brings opportunities (Rahm Emmanuel) so there might be big opportunities for European social democracy going forward

21. New Book – Building the Good society Out 25th November 2011 Thank you very much for your attention!