ENDGAME FOR THE CENTRE LEFT?
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ENDGAME FOR THE CENTRE LEFT?
The Retreat of Social Democracy Across Europe
London • New York
Published by Rowman & Littlefield International Ltd.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: PB 978-1-78660-282-4
ISBN: eBook 978-1-78660-283-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016954179
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
The Political Landscape of Europe
Which Voters are the Left Losing?
What Explains the Poor Performance of Centre-left Parties?
Social Democracy: A Crisis of Ideas?
How does the Centre Left Respond? Social Justice in the ‘New Hard Times’
Patrick Diamond is co-chair and research director at Policy Network. He is a lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary, University of London, Gwilym Gibbon fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and a visiting fellow in the Department of Politics at the University of Oxford. Until May 2010 he was head of policy planning in 10 Downing Street and senior policy adviser to the prime minister.
This short book is a contribution to the growing debate on the left in Europe about the future of social democracy, and the likely prospects for left of centre politics. After a period of electoral dominance, centre-left parties in western Europe have suffered a dramatic erosion of support; the vote share enjoyed by social democrats is at its lowest ever level. Already, much has been written about why social democracy is in a state of decline; political diagnosis is essential to understand what strategies might now be available to centre-left parties. This book’s argument is that social democracy stands at a point of great promise, but also peril. To write off centre left politics now would be a great mistake: right and centre-right competitor parties have their own problems; in any case, societies have not rejected social democratic values. The ideal of solidarity and the imperative of forging bonds of connection in a volatile, interdependent world is as compelling as it always was.
At the same time, the centre left clearly faces difficulties: ‘the forward march of labour’ has been abruptly halted while declining trust in politics adds to the problem of constructing viable electoral coalitions. The UK’s decision to vote to leave the European Union on June 23 raises the prospect of societies throughout Europe irreparably divided between voters who embrace economic openness, and those who are opposed to change. Social democracy has to find new ways to build bridges between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ communities by updating public institutions and policies, just as socialist parties did in the immediate aftermath of the second world war. This is an urgent task. There is not a moment to lose.