scholarly journals The Economics and Politics of Social Democracy: A Reconsideration

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Servaas Storm
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
Job Growth ◽  
Fiscal Austerity ◽  
Economics And Politics ◽  
The Welfare State

Questions about the decline of Social democracy continue to excite wide interest, even in the era of Covid-19. This paper takes a fresh look at topic. It argues that social democratic politics faces a fundamental dilemma: short-term practical relevance requires it to accept, at least partly, the very socio-economic conditions which it purports to change in the longer run. Bhaduri’s (1993) essay which analyzes social democracy’s attempts to navigate this dilemma by means of ‘a nationalization of consumption’ and Keynesian demand management, was written before the rise of New (‘Third Way’) Labor and before the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-8. This paper provides an update, arguing that New Labor’s attempt to rescue ‘welfare capitalism’ entailed a new solution to the dilemma facing social democracy based on an expansion of employment, i.e. an all-out emphasis on “jobs, jobs, jobs”. The flip-side (or social cost) of the emphasis on job growth has been a stagnation of productivity growth—which, in turn, has put the ‘welfare state’ under increasing pressure of fiscal austerity. The popular discontent and rise of ‘populist’ political parties is closely related to the failure of New Labor to navigate social democracy’s dilemma.

scholarly journals The partisan politics of the penal–welfare nexus: a quantitative analysis of party influence on the relationship between penal and welfare policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Helge Staff ◽  
Georg Wenzelburger
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Welfare Policies ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Penal State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Generous Welfare ◽  
Unique Dataset ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract Evidence of a link between the retrenchment of the welfare state and the expansion of the penal state has sparked a debate about the existence of a nexus. In this study, we critically explore this link by focusing on political parties. First, we argue that welfare and penal policies are likely to follow distinct paths, with left-liberal/green parties pushing for less punitive penal and market-liberal/conservative parties for less generous welfare policy. Second, we only expect a nexus between both policy domains if conservative or “third way” social democratic governments are in power. The former follows a coherent ideology, the latter compensates for welfare retrenchment with tough-on-crime policies. We test these claims quantitatively on a unique dataset covering all changes to welfare and penal legislation in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and France between 1990 and 2014 and find our expectations supported except conservative influence on the penal–welfare nexus.

The Retreat of Social Democracy. By John Callaghan. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000. 255p. $69.95 cloth, $24.95 paper. Against the Third Way. By Alex Callinicos. Oxford: Polity Press, 2001. 160p. $56.95 cloth, $21.95 paper. Social Democracy in Neoliberal Times: The Left and Economic Policy since 1980. Edited by Andrew Glyn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 374p. $70.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 652-654
Author(s):  
Fred Block
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Financial Integration ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
The Welfare State

Since the 1980s, global financial integration and the rise of neoliberalism have significantly changed the terrain on which European social democratic parties operate. However, fierce debate persists over the evaluation of these changes. Some observers—from widely differing political standpoints—insist that social democracy and the free movement of capital across national boundaries are fundamentally incompatible. It follows that the only options for social democratic parties are either to embrace neoliberalism and dismantle much of the welfare state or organize concerted action to reshape the global financial architecture. An opposing group of analysts are equally adamant that while the terrain has certainly become more difficult, it is still possible for Social Democrats to preserve much of the welfare state and even launch new policy initiatives.

A Model of Welfare Capitalism?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Original Sense ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter discusses the rise of the idea of Sweden as a particular model of welfare capitalism in the social sciences from the 1930s onwards. Drawing on a constructivist approach to political economy, it proposes that prevailing analytical concepts of the Swedish model as a politics-against-markets type of intervention into the capitalist economy are today falsified, as both the welfare state and social democracy have been thoroughly caught up in the process of marketization. The defining features of welfare capitalism in its original sense have undergone a transformation. Neoliberalism was introduced in Sweden, the chapter concludes, through the welfare state, functioning as a de facto series of quasi markets.

A New Wave of Social Democracy? Policy Change across the Social Democratic Party Family, 1970s–2010s

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Rob Manwaring ◽  
Josh Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Breaking Wave ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Family

Abstract Social democracy is in a state of change and flux, and the electoral fortunes of many centre-left political parties are poor. This article offers an analysis of the current trajectory of the centre left, by detailing a systematic mapping of policy change across the family of social democratic political parties. Many of the parties, especially in the 1990s, took a ‘third way’ turn, or a shift to what has been called the ‘new social democracy’. Yet, the ‘third way’ label is a poor descriptor to capture the changing policy profile and dynamics of the family of mainstream centre-left political parties. In Adam Przeworski's view, there have been four main waves of social democracy. We employ the ‘wave’ frame to examine if there is an emergent, fifth, breaking wave of social democracy. Overall, we find that social democratic parties have moved beyond the ‘third way’; they are shifting leftwards, but they are a new kind of ‘left’ from that of previous decades.

Revisionisme Marxisme Dan Perkembangan Ideologi Demokrasi Sosial (Studi Pemikiran Eduard Bernstein dan Anthony Giddens)

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Arizka Warganegara
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Anthony Giddens ◽  
Cosmopolitan Democracy

This study is about the law development of social democracy in the perspective of Eduard Bernstein andAnthony Giddens. It applied the method of qualitative analysis and used the library research, the data inthis study analyzed with the content of analysis. The main purposes of this study wants to describe andanalysis of Law Development of Social Democracy in the perspective of Bernstein and Giddens.Socialism Democracy of Bernstein and Cosmopolitan Democracy of Giddens used as toll of comparative.Social Democracy has been revision three times, Bernstein is the first generation, The second generationis Social Democratic Party of Germany with The bad Godesberg Program and the last is Giddens. Theinteresting of this study is the basic difference among Bernstein and Giddens in the understanding ofconcept of Social Democracy. The different time and context imply the different ontology andepistemology to this ideology. If Bernstein lived in the time of raised of capitalism and Industrialization inEurope, Giddens has lived in the time of this ideology must be against the raises of Neo liberalism andGlobalization. Actually The basic concept of Social democracy of Bersntein is his critics to the theory andconcept of Karl Marx, this causes the different perspective with Giddens. Finally Giddens made thisideology more Liberal than before, many political scientist assume that The Third Way of Giddens is thecontinuously of Capitalism.Keywords : Social Democracy, Bad Godesberg and Capitalism

The Uses of Affordable Social Investment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Hemerijck
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
First Century ◽  
Paradigm Change ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Welfare Capitalism ◽  
Methodological Innovation ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
Fiscal Austerity ◽  
Second Use

The final chapter concludes with five contemporary ‘uses’ of social investment, in full recognition of limits underscored by critics. The first ‘use’ of social investment therefore concerns its ‘paradigmatic’ bearings. To what extent does social investment represent a distinct policy paradigm for twenty-first-century welfare capitalism? A second ‘use’ relates to paradigm change, in the sense of theoretical progress inspiring interdisciplinary methodological innovation, in particular with respect to the empirical assessment of well-being ‘returns’ on social investment. The third more practical ‘use’ covers the identification of virtuous social investment policy mixes of ‘stocks’, ‘flows’, and ‘buffers’. The fourth ‘use’ is geographically confined to the European conundrum of overcoming the fiscal austerity to make way for social investment reform, as means to reignite socioeconomic convergence, at least for the Eurozone. The more general final use of social investment bears on the ‘politics of social investment’ in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

From the Golden to the Dark Decade, From Reforms to Isms and Ologies

1980 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 457-470
Author(s):  
John Pinder
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Demand Management ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Applied Social Science ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Welfare State

THE 1950s WERE A WONDERFUL DECADE FOR APPLIED SOCIAL science: for the belief that reason addressed to economic and social problems can improve the human condition. Compare the 1950s with the 1930s and ask how much of the improvement was due to Keynes and Beveridge. It is inevitable that a generation of debunkers should follow whose answer would be ‘not much’. But that would have seemed a strange conclusion in the 1950s; and the view of the 1950s was surely right. We had full employment in place of 10 per cent unemployment in the 1920s and nearly 15 per cent in the 1930s; and after the first years of post-war reconstruction, it was reasonable to attribute this to Keynesian demand management. We had a safety net through which relatively few fell into poverty; and this was Beveridge's social security and the welfare state.

‘New’ Social Democracy before the Court of Justice

2006 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Nina Boeger
Keyword(s):  
Social Democracy ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Third Way ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Core Idea ◽  
Third Way Politics

Community law has seen some of the fiercest battles over ‘new’ social democracy and ‘Third Way’ politics. To simplify somewhat, the core idea of the Third Way is to rely on the market to provide services to the public efficiently, without however disconnecting them from certain key social values. In the Community legal order, these social policy devices invite the application of the Community’s economic jurisdiction, where public services can be classified as ‘market’ services. They frequently lead to what Joerges has labelled ‘diagonal’ conflicts between the Community’s economic law and its competence to uphold the EU Internal Market, and the Member States’ individual choice, and competence, to administer their welfare states. In ‘diagonal’ conflict situations, a single set of facts is analysed via two different ‘logics’, one following the economic perspective of the Internal Market, and the other marking the Member State’s political and social competence, where states are regularly guided by a more diffuse set of values, including public and constitutional rights, and practical political pressures. Whilst states may well invite the market into their welfare state, for example as part of a political ‘third way’ solution, the national electorate, who will ultimately hold public authorities accountable, are likely to concentrate their judgement on the realisation of substantive public service targets rather than how they have been achieved.

“Professional Movements” and the Expansion of Access to Healthcare in the Industrializing World

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 252-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Harris
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Access To Healthcare ◽  
Knowledge Networks ◽  
Mass Movements ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Universal Healthcare ◽  
Health Policymaking ◽  
The Welfare State

Explanations for the expansion of the welfare state have frequently centered on the importance of left-wing political parties and labor unions. Scholars have even pointed to the rare but growing significance of social democracy in the industrializing world. Yet, in the field of healthcare, labor unions frequently oppose sweeping universalistic reforms that threaten to erode members’ existing benefits, and those most in need of healthcare in rural areas and the informal sector are often the least organized politically. In the absence of mass demands, who then is responsible for universal healthcare programs in the industrializing world, and by what means do they successfully advocate for far-reaching reforms? This article explores the role that “professional movements” played in expanding access to healthcare in an industrializing nation that was engaged in processes of democratization. Mass movements are typically composed of lay people; by contrast, professional movements are made up of elites from esteemed professions who command knowledge, networks, and access to state resources that set them apart from ordinary citizens. The account illustrates how and why professional movements are able to play such a powerful role in health policymaking in the industrializing world, points to the need for more research on professional movements in other cases and policy domains, and discusses their relevance to social change in the industrializing world.

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