Cards
on the table? For most of my life I’ve been a “mugwump” – with my mug on one
side of the fence and my wump on the other. Hiding inside one of Scotland’s
Regional political leaders of the 70s and 80s was someone who sometimes thought
he was an anarchist.
I
was a sceptic on much conventional wisdom and power - a reader of New Left
Review no less – who saw no personal future in parliamentary activity nor went
along with the “militants” in their increasingly oppositionist tactics of the
late 70s and 80s….
Support
for community enterprise was where I put my energy – and then, as I moved
continents and roles, in helping to strengthen the capacity of new institutions
of civil service and municipal power in central Europe and central Asia.
As
the extent of New Labour’s capitulation to the power of finance capital became
clear (from the publication in 2000 of George Monbiot’s The
Captive State – the corporate takeover of Britain) my sympathies grew with
those struggling against financial, commercial and political power alike – but
I still resisted a “leftist”
label – even recently….
Like
a lot of my generation, I hankered for the “golden age”….when, as Crosland
assured us in his powerful Future of Socialism (1956), capitalism had been
tamed…..
Given such a personal history, you will appreciate
that yesterday’s post was
pretty significant for me – in being prepared to recognize that social
democracy enjoyed the peak of its power at a particular conjuncture of
circumstances which are unlikely to appear again.
Or to express this more precisely - that I should
have been more aware that ideas fit
particular interests – which have
varying degrees of power backing
them up……
Put in even more personal
terms, I have occupied in my life a very specific academic and political “slot”
which has given me the power and interests to pursue specific “reformist”
ideas…..
I have always seen myself
as a “realist” in the Niebuhrian
sense – but one who perhaps has been too carried away by my ideas and interests to look critically
enough at the wider context in which I was living - and at the power of other interests!
I have never been a fan of
conspiracy theories but have had to wake up to the fact that what we have
called, variously, “globalization”, “neoliberalism”, “managerialism” etc are ideas
which have been pushed in sustained and well-funded efforts by Think Tanks to
influence academics….
People are now aware both of these efforts and of the potential of technological changes for
what is called the “sharing economy” or “the commons” – to such an extent that
talk of the end of capitalism is rife….I’m not sure, however, if we have yet given
social democracy the funeral rites which are its due……..
I
think it’s time for another list of these internet links which this blog has
become famous for producing (I joke!). As on previous occasions, I have
annotated them to help you steer the appropriate course. And, like you, I still
have to dip into them. They are on the list simply because they seem to be
essential reading…
So
happy reading – and let’s see whether some of us can’t perhaps share our
reactions?
A
“Social Democracy” Resource
Books
Social Democracy After the Cold War; B Evans and I. Schmidt (2012) This 350 page book can be read in full by clicking the link...
One Hundred Years of Socialism – the west European left in the 20th century; Donald Sassoon (2010)
An unsurpassable 965 page blockbuster!
In
Search of Social Democracy – responses to crisis and modernisation; ed
Callaghan, Fishman, Jackson and McIver (2009)
A critical assessment by a self-avowed Marxist of the performance of these parties in Australia, Britain, Germany and Sweden which argues that these parties are now impediments to the task of building a better world. This will come, the book argues, from alternative left and global social movements…
The Primacy of Politics – social democracy and the making of Europe’s 20th Century; Sheri Berman (2006); The book was the subject of a great seminar whose introduction says – “Like the social democrats who are the heroes of this book, she takes a classic set of arguments and interrogates and updates them, making claims about what works and what doesn’t, what’s relevant to our contemporary situation, and what isn’t. Second, in so doing she decisively demonstrates the importance of ideas to politics”.
Anthony Crosland – the mixed economy; D Reisman (1997)
The Primacy of Politics – social democracy and the making of Europe’s 20th Century; Sheri Berman (2006); The book was the subject of a great seminar whose introduction says – “Like the social democrats who are the heroes of this book, she takes a classic set of arguments and interrogates and updates them, making claims about what works and what doesn’t, what’s relevant to our contemporary situation, and what isn’t. Second, in so doing she decisively demonstrates the importance of ideas to politics”.
Forging Democracy – the history of the Left in Europe 1850-2000; Geoff Eley (2002)
Anthony Crosland – the mixed economy; D Reisman (1997)
A neglected treatment of the ideas of this major British “revisionist” of the 50s and 60s who wrote the seminal “Future of Socialism” (1956). Must be the definitive analysis!
Crosland’s Future – opportunity and outcome; D Reisman (1997)
Its sister book – a great read. Here’s a fascinating review of Crosland’s work written in 1963 by the famous Lewis Coser
After Social
Democracy; politics, capitalism and the common life; John Gray (1996 Demos)
Written a year before New
Labour took power, this was indeed a prescient book – as well as being so
clearly written
Welfare State and Social
Democracy (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 2012) Very thorough (160pp) treatment
of the German situation (in English)
The Three Worlds of
Social Democracy – a global view; I Schmidt (ed) 2016
Probably
the most up-to-date global assessment
The
Crosland Legacy – the future of social democracy; Patrick Diamond (2016)
Rethinking
German political economy – call for papers (2017); This is a great resource
I found while googling,,,,,
A useful short paper written to assess implications for South Korea
Social democracy in power – explaining the capacity to reform; (2007) A paper comparing fiscal, employment, and social policies of six social-democratic governments in Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark revealing three distinct types of social democratic governments
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