Making social democrats

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Democracy ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The People ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
The Government

Amidst ‘Brexit’, a divided and out of power Labour Party, and the wider international rise of populism, contemporary British social democracy appears in a state of crisis.  This book, a collection of essays by some of Britain’s leading academics, public intellectuals and political practitioners, seeks to engage with the ‘big picture’ of British social democracy, both historical and contemporary, and point to grounds for greater optimism for its future prospects.  It does so in honour of the renowned centre-left thinker David Marquand.  Drawing on many of the themes which have preoccupied Marquand in his career and his writing, such as social democratic citizenship, values and participation, the volume offers the original perspective that social democracy is as much about cultures and mindsets as it is about economic policy or public institutions.  This points to the importance of education, democratisation, and relationships as under-valued tools in social democracy, which must raise horizons as much as pay packets.  It also suggests the need for social democrats to re-visit their relationship with ‘the people’, both so as to be better in tune with their aspirations, and to be able to forge a more lofty and optimistic agenda which challenges both the government and the governed to raise their sights.

Making social democrats

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Jeremy Nuttall ◽  
Hans Schattle
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The People

This introductory chapter sets out the main purposes of the book, which assesses some of the major dilemmas of British social democracy, both historical and contemporary. It argues that social democracy is as much about cultures and mindsets as it is about economic policy or public institutions. That points to the importance of education, democratisation, and relationships as under-valued tools in social democracy, which must raise horizons as much as pay packets. It also suggests the need for social democrats to re-visit their relationship with ‘the people’, both so as to be better in tune with their aspirations, and to be able to forge an optimistic agenda which challenges both government and governed to raise their sights. The book is written in honour of the leading social democratic thinker, David Marquand, and this chapter charts Marquand’s life and work, and assesses and critiques his contribution.

Social Democrats I

Just Property ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 108-137
Author(s):  
Christopher Pierson
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Functional Property ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Press ◽  
British Case ◽  
Further Development

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of what we mean by social democracy. I explore the origins of a distinctively social democratic view in mid-nineteenth century Europe, above all through the work of Louis Blanc and Ferdinand Lassalle. I plot its further development, above all in the context of German social democracy and the work of Bernstein, Kautsky, Luxemburg, and Jaurès. I turn to the British case to consider the further development of these ideas in the interwar period, above all in changing views of nationalization, planning, taxation, and ‘functional property’. Key thinkers in this process include Tawney, Jay, and Keynes. The earliest social democrats had very clear views about the need to socialize the ownership of property. Later social democrats, under the press of a politics that was electorally feasible, sought to fudge the hard questions on property.

Democracy and Good Governance

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-96
Author(s):  
Henk Addink
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government

Democracy is about government and governance by the people in different forms. Democracy is direct or by representation. Sovereignty of the people, however, is not the same as democracy. The position of minorities related to majorities, in a democracy, is not always easy to regulate. This situation has made clear that democracy also has qualitative contents and it is even clearer when we speak about democracy in the sense of a liberal democracy or of a social democracy. Two key elements in and topics related to democracy are the participation of the people and the elections by the people and the transparency of the government. There are some restrictions in a representative democracy and, for that reason, participation will be necessary to maintain the connection between the government and the people. But to have an adequate functioning of this participation and of the elections, transparency on behalf of the government is a necessary condition for a democracy.

Social democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Miller
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Practical Politics ◽  
Post War ◽  
Distribution Of Income

The idea of social democracy is now used to describe a society the economy of which is predominantly capitalist, but where the state acts to regulate the economy in the general interest, provides welfare services outside of it and attempts to alter the distribution of income and wealth in the name of social justice. Originally ’social democracy’ was more or less equivalent to ’socialism’. But since the mid-twentieth century, those who think of themselves as social democrats have come to believe that the old opposition between capitalism and socialism is outmoded; many of the values upheld by earlier socialists can be promoted by reforming capitalism rather than abolishing it. Although it bases itself on values like democracy and social justice, social democracy cannot really be described as a political philosophy: there is no systematic statement or great text that can be pointed to as a definitive account of social democratic ideals. In practical politics, however, social democratic ideas have been very influential, guiding the policies of most Western states in the post-war world.

scholarly journals Democracy, Enlightenment, and Revolution: Cantonese Marxists and Chinese Social Democracy, 1920–1922

Modern China ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 009770042095477
Author(s):  
Xuduo Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Social Democracy ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Federalist ◽  
May Fourth ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Masses

This article discusses two different attitudes toward elections and democracy among the early Chinese communists. It argues that apart from some communist leaders in Shanghai who saw nothing of value in participating in elections, there were members of the party who favored social democracy. Two Cantonese Marxists, Chen Gongbo and Tan Pingshan, heavily influenced by German social democrats, especially Karl Kautsky, attached great importance to elections and “the enlightenment of the masses” on the road to communism. This led them to oppose their comrades in Shanghai, and to support the federalist self-government movement advocated by Chen Jiongming. After 1922, this rift between communists in Guangzhou and Shanghai grew into a serious intra-party conflict. Eventually, the Cantonese social democratic approach was politically discredited and largely forgotten. Exploring this Cantonese approach will clarify the connection and tension between democracy, enlightenment, and socialism in May Fourth China.

Crisis and Retrenchment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Retallack
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The Right

This chapter begins by examining the violent street protests in 1905 in favor of suffrage reform in Saxony. At this time, the authority of Saxony’s state ministry reached a new low, and opponents of Social Democracy were forced to temporize even as they considered which suffrage reform proposals to adopt. Then the culture of working-class protest is examined from the perspective of Social Democracy’s new confidence and bourgeois fears of “the rabble.” This chapter’s second section examines the setback suffered by Social Democrats in the Reichstag election of 1907, and the lessons they and their enemies learned. This section examines the reasons for Social Democratic losses in Saxony, which included a new willingness on the Right to undertake the hard labor of grass-roots agitation. Yet the Right still sought to slow or halt Germany’s political democratization.

Bringing Capital Back In, or Social Democracy Reconsidered: Employer Power, Cross-Class Alliances, and Centralization of Industrial Relations in Denmark and Sweden

1991 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Swenson
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The World ◽  
Industrial Conflict ◽  
The Right

The political domination of Social Democrats in Denmark and Sweden beginning in the 1930s was stabilized by the absence of intense opposition by capital to reformist programs aggressively opposed by business and the Right elsewhere in the world. This quiescence was not a symptom of weakness or dependency; rather, it was a product of a class-intersecting, cross-class alliance behind institutions of centralized industrial relations that served mutual interests of sectoral groupings dominating both union and employer confederations. Well-organized and militant, and backed by Social Democrats, employers in the two countries used offensive multi-industry lockouts to force centralization on reluctant unions. Analysis of these cross-class alliances and their pay-distributional objectives is used to challenge a widely held view that centralization and Social Democratic electoral strength are sources of power against capital. It also occasions a reassessment of conventional understandings of farmer-labor coalitions and the decline of industrial conflict in Scandinavia in the 1930s. According to the alternative view presented here, capital was included rather than excluded from these cross-class alliances, and industrial conflict subsided dramatically in part because employers achieved politically what they had previously tried to achieve with the lockout.

The Electoral Consequences of Welfare State Reforms for the Danish Social Democrats

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Arndt
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
People's Party ◽  
The Social ◽  
Electoral Defeat ◽  
Immigration Issue ◽  
Welfare Reforms

AbstractThe article demonstrates that the big electoral defeat for Danish social democracy in the 2001 elections was not solely the consequence of the immigration issue, but of the welfare state reforms implemented by the Social Democratic government (1993–2001). Social democratic core voters opposed the reforms since they broke with the decommodification paradigm and turned away from social democracy. Against the arguments from the literature, the left-wing competitor Socialist People’s Party’s could not benefit from the reforms given its function as supporter party. Rather, the reforms caused the realignment of social democratic core voters with the Liberals and the Danish People’s Party having expanded their voter base in 2001 as a consequence of the welfare reforms.

scholarly journals SOCIALIST IDEOLOGY IN THE VIEWS OF S. PETLIURA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 20th CENTURY

2021 ◽  
pp. 62-65
Author(s):  
N. Semashko
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Party Building ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right ◽  
Sharp Criticism

The article considers the peculiarities of the social-democratic views of the prominent statesman Simon Vasilyevich Petliura in the period 1902-1917, that is, at the stage of forming his political worldview. The role of S. Petliura as one of the leading ideologues of the Ukrainian social democracy of the beginning of the XX century is determined. The attitude of S. Petliura to the Russian variants of marxism is analyzed, his views on European social democracy, the main issues of development of the Ukrainian people, and solving them through the prism of socialist ideas. His views on party building are studied, relations between the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers 'Party and the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party. The key positions of the Russian Social Democrats have been identified, which became the subject of sharp criticism of S. Petliura. It turned out that Simon Petliura was a supporter of the European version of Social Democracy, in particular on the issue of the right of nations to selfdetermination. S. Petliura entered into a sharp controversy with representatives of the Russian Social-Democracy, argued the falsity of their views on non-recognition of the right of the Ukrainian people to autonomy, appealing to the works of Karl Kautsky. S. Petliura did not share the centralizing policy of the Russian Marxists regarding party building, defending the right of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Workers' Party to an independent organizational structure. Socialist ideology in views S. Petliura was dominant, but had bright national features. The key stages of formation of the worldview of the figure are determined. The transformation of its ideological foundations is determined.

scholarly journals European Social Democracy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
European Country ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

European social democracy is at once a political theory, a political movement, and a set of institutions. As a political theory, European social democracy has its origins in the development of the workers’ movement, inspired by Marxist and utopian socialist ideas, in the second half of the 19th century. This movement spawned political parties with the label “social democratic,” “socialist,” or “labor” in practically every European country, and these parties mobilized industrial and agricultural workers as well as intellectuals in opposition to capitalism and political authoritarianism. Social democracy as a distinct political force emerged out of the split in the workers’ movement between revolutionary socialists and those who sought to achieve socialism through a parliamentary route. This split was formalized in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, with revolutionaries creating separate Communist parties while the rump of the workers’ movement adopted a gradualist or revisionist strategy of reforming capitalism through democratic institutions. Social democratic parties went on to establish themselves as mainstream political forces, participating in government or forming the main opposition, in almost every European country. Where social democrats were electorally successful, they were able to promote institutions such as the welfare state and corporatist bargaining in the workplace, and in some countries they brought parts of the private economy under government control. By the end of the 20th century, however, many European social democrats adopted increasingly promarket stances, arguing that globalization and technological change had rendered the classic social democratic model obsolete.

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