In the Name of Social Democracy The Great Transformation, 1945 to the Present

by Moschonas, Gerassimos; Elliott, Gregory

• ISBN13: 9781859843468
• ISBN10: 1859843468
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

Following the locust years of the neo-liberal revolution, social democracy was the great victor at the fin-de-siecle elections. Today, parties descended from the Second International hold office throughout the European Union, while the Right appears widely disorientated by the dramatic 'modernization' of a political tradition dating back to the nineteenth century.The focal point of Gerassimos Moschonas's study is the emergent 'new social democracy' of the twenty-first century. As Moschonas demonstrates, change has been a constant of social-democratic history: the core dominant reformist tendency of working-class politics notwithstanding, capitalism has transformed social democracy more than the latter has transformed capitalism. Now, in the 'great transformation' of recent years, a process of 'de-social-democratization' has been set in train, affecting every aspect of the social-democratic phenomenon, from ideology and programs to organization and electorates. Analytically incisive and empirically meticulous, In the Name of Social Democracy will establish itself as the standard reference work on the logic and dynamics of a major mutation in European politics.

Author Biography

Gerassimos Moschonas is Assistant Professor in Comparative Poltics in the Department of Political Science and History at Pantheion University, Athens.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	ix
Principal Abbreviations	xi
Preface	xiii
Introduction	1	(12)
Part I: Introduction: Social Democracy, 1945-73	13	(60)
Which Social Democracy?	15	(10)
The Party-Organization	25	(15)
Social Democracy in the Electorate	40	(15)
Social Democracy in Competition	55	(8)
The Social-Democratic Compromise	63	(10)
Part II: Contemporary Social Democracy	73	(140)
Electoral Weakening: `Magical Return' of the Big Loser?	75	(8)
The Transformation of Social Democracy's Electoral Base	83	(37)
Inside Social Democracy: Organization in Mutation	120	(34)
A Time of Competitive Insecurity: `La modernite, c'est nous!'	154	(27)
In Search of New Prophets: From Keynesianism to Liberalism	181	(32)
Part III: The Logic of the Social-Democratic Transformation (A Synthesis)	213	(36)
The Postwar Social-Democratic Model (1945-'73)	215	(5)
Social Democracy in the Process of Transformation	220	(8)
The New Social Democracy	228	(21)
Part IV: Social Democracy in Context	249	(38)
The Unions and Left Oppositions	251	(10)
The European Union, Globalization and `No Alternative'	261	(8)
The Party of European Socialists and Socialist Co-operation in Europe	269	(18)
Part V: Social Democracy in Historical Perspective	287	(26)
On the Verge of an Identity Change	289	(16)
A Moment of Strategic Pessimism?	305	(8)
Conclusions	313	(14)
Epilogue	327	(4)
Select Bibliography	331	(20)
Postscript	351	(10)
Index	361