The search for social democracy has not been an easy one over
the last three decades. The economic crisis of the 1970s, and the
consequent rise of neo-liberalism, confronted social democrats with
difficult new circumstances: tax-resistant electorates, the
globalization of capital and Western de-industrialization. In
response, a new bout of ideological revisionism consumed social
democratic parties. But did this revisionism simply amount to a
neo-liberalisation of the Left or did it propose a recognizably
social democratic agenda? Were these ideological adaptations the
only feasible ones or were there other forms of modernization that
might have yielded greater strategic dividends for the Left? Why
did some social democratic parties feel it necessary to take their
revisionism much further than others?
"In Search of Social Democracy" brings together prominent
scholars of social democracy to address these questions. Focusing
on the social democratic heartland of Western Europe (although
Australia and the United States also figure in the analysis), it
gives the first detailed assessment of how the new social
democratic revisionism has fared in government. The book begins by
considering the underlying causes of the end of social democracy's
golden age and the magnitude of the challenges faced by social
democratic parties after the 1970s. It then proceeds to examine
detailed case studies of how particular social democratic parties
responded to this changed political terrain. Finally, it
contributes to a broader conversation about the future of social
democracy by considering ways in which the political thought of
'third way' social democracy might be radicalized for the
twenty-first century. The contributors offer a variety of
perspectives -- some are skeptical of social democracy's prospects,
others more sanguine; some supportive of the performance of social
democratic parties in government, others bitingly critical. But
they are united by the conviction that the themes addressed in this
book are crucial to understanding the current politics of the
industrialized world and, in particular, to determining the
feasibility of more egalitarian and democratic social outcomes than
have been possible so far in the era of neo-liberalism.
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