Resetting the Left in Europe : challenges, attempts and obstacles
Resetting the Left in Europe : challenges, attempts and obstacles
Contributor(s): Irena Ristić (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Left politics; social democracy; neoliberalism; globalization; political populism; transnational solidarity; European Left
Summary/Abstract: This edited volume was inspired by the international conference “The Left is Dead, Long Live the Left? The Changes and Challenges of the Left in Contemporary Europe” that took place on 28 and 29 November 2018, at the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade. The conference was conceptualized by the Institute of Social Sciences and jointly organized with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Belgrade. The aim of the conference was to provide a framework for understanding the institutional, socio-economic and historical causes and the patterns of the downfall of the left idea and the left agency, as well as to grasp the challenges of the Left in contemporary Europe. This of course required going beyond the usual (and until recently) dominant explanatory model, according to which the crisis of the Left was triggered by the global financial crisis in 2007/08; an argument that overlooked the complexity of the economic and political transformation in Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the acceleration of globalization. Neither did this explanation take into account the failures of the Third Way, seemingly interpreting the firm decisions taken by social democratic parties throughout the 1990s as being merely aimed at a restructuring of the social welfare state and enhancement of free trade, as opposed to the reality of their paving the road to far-ranging deregulation, non-transparent privatizations, fiscal austerity and market fundamentalism throughout Europe. Therefore, in spite of all external factors and circumstances, which have not looked kindly upon leftist policies over the last three decades, there is certainly also a responsibility of the Left for its continuous stumbling when it comes to taking clear stances on political issues that used to lie at the core of Left politics. In this sense, the discussion in this book is not reduced to looking back to the (structural) roots of the crisis, but also opens questions regarding failures of the Left and, finally, also sketches out ideas for the near future, in which the Left will sooner or later need to (re-)position itself.
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-86-7093-245-6
- Page Count: 315
- Publication Year: 2021
- Language: English
The changes and challenges of the Left in contemporary Europe - An introduction
The changes and challenges of the Left in contemporary Europe - An introduction
(The changes and challenges of the Left in contemporary Europe - An introduction)
- Author(s):Irena Ristić
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Political Philosophy, Politics and society, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:15-23
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:Left; crisis; change; critical mass; internationalization
- Summary/Abstract:Left-wing parties in Europe have been faced by a crisis for more than three decades. What in the 1970s started as a challenge by conservative political elites to the post-war constellation characterized by a welfare state and an institutionally regulated market, was, from 1989 onward, strengthened by the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent acceleration of economic globalization throughout the 1990s. Most social democratic parties in Europe did not only fail to question this emerging model of deregulated capitalism, but also went so far as to embrace it, thus triggering a ground-breaking ideological, political and also structural shift in themselves. The consequence was a loss of their traditional constituency, which, to a not insignificant extent, turned to right-wing populist parties. New Left movements, challengers of the established social democratic parties, started once again after the global economic crisis to garner support in countries in which economic deprivation had hit hardest, mostly in Southern Europe. Their examples showed that there is not only a strong need, but also a huge demand, for leftist policies. But being scattered between different countries, these movements also showed that without a united, transnational and solidary front of leftist movements throughout Europe, the chances of achieving a sustainable impact and paradigm shift of the dominating economic model will remain low.
The Left between crises: Antinomy of powerlessness and power
The Left between crises: Antinomy of powerlessness and power
(The Left between crises: Antinomy of powerlessness and power)
- Author(s):Alpar Lošonc, Kosta Josifidis
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Politics and society, Sociology of Politics, Politics and Identity
- Page Range:27-53
- No. of Pages:27
- Keywords:capitalism; crisis; Left; structural determinations; temporality of crisis
- Summary/Abstract:The starting point of this paper is the notion that crisis can offer a comprehensive perspective for the antinomian situation of the portion of the Left that is attempting to transform capitalism “from within”. Using political-economical terms, we describe how the leftist proviso is determined by the constitutive tension between its capacities for transformation and the fact that it is embedded in the structural fields of capitalism. On the one hand there are trajectories of crisis that disarm its capacities, i.e. pose a threat to the Left, while, on the other, the crisis can be seen as an entry point for riots, protests and resistances that call for leftist “translation” and articulation. This work consists of three parts: In the first, conceptual part, we criticize the standard discourse of neutrality concerning political polarization, and present the crisis as a multidimensional process that inevitably involves the crisis of the Left. In the second part, select dimensions of the 2007 crisis are dealt with, and the gap between the organic and revolutionary crises is presented. The third part analyses the contemporary aspects of a crisis when viewed as a process that is merely a continuation of a previous one, changing the temporality of the horizon of the crisis, and opening up new (contradictory) possibilities for the self-reflection and self-transcending of a Left whose future remains uncertain.
On the future of the Left: A global perspective
On the future of the Left: A global perspective
(On the future of the Left: A global perspective)
- Author(s):Heikki Patomäki
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Political Philosophy, Politics and society, Sociology of Politics, Globalization
- Page Range:55-85
- No. of Pages:31
- Keywords:crisis; Left; Polanyian “double movement”; political agency
- Summary/Abstract:The crisis of the Left has many reasons and causes, some of which are understandable in terms of classical rhetoric: ethos, pathos and logos. Yet this crisis has real causes not reducible to language and rhetoric alone. Attempts at “modernization” of social democracy have eroded hope, while the supposed Soviet legacy has continued to haunt the more “radical” Left movements and parties. Over time, collective memory shifts and political audience changes. The two recently most-successful leftist parties have emerged from social movements: Syriza and Podemos have consciously adopted left-wing populist stances. A problem is that the story of “people versus the dominant elite” loses part of its emotional appeal if the representatives of the “people” appear to be enmeshed with “elite” practices either in one’s own country or elsewhere. The fate of Syriza reveals also how difficult it is to make even a moderate and cautious turn toward the Left, unless there is a broader European or worldwide movement behind it. It is here further argued that there is no automatic or mechanical Polanyian “double movement”. Rather, world history depends also on agency. The discrepancy between territorial states and global capital is an obstacle that can be best overcome by globalizing democratic-socialist politics. It is argued that far from being exhausted as a project or in terms of pathos, a grand task awaits the Left. Social freedom can be increased. Obstacles can be removed. Existing global political economy contradictions and global problems can be resolved by means of rational collective actions and by the building of more adequate common institutions. An experimentalist leftist vision can inspire hope and optimism about our future possibilities.
The rise and fall of the ordoliberal Left in Europe
The rise and fall of the ordoliberal Left in Europe
(The rise and fall of the ordoliberal Left in Europe)
- Author(s):Vassilis K. Fouskas, Shampa Roy-Mukherjee
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Political Theory, Political history, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:87-111
- No. of Pages:25
- Keywords:Third Way; neoliberalism; ordoliberalism; Keynesianism; financialization/globalization
- Summary/Abstract:One of the most cherished myths of the ‘Third Way’ that remains in Britain and Europe is that social democracy had to change and embrace aspects of the neoliberal agenda because supply-side policy constraints laid out by the process of globalization and European integration were insurmountable. Similarly, in the wake of the global financial crisis and the eurozone crisis, this form of the Left embraced austerity, arguing that “There Is No Alternative” (TINA). Another, more sophisticated, branch of the Left looked at the EU as a field of socialist action for the implementation of a full-fledged Keynesian agenda. We challenge these false realisms. We argue that the neo-revisionist Third Way Left has failed on several counts, two of which are important for our purposes here. First, restructuring, and not just being constrained by the new contours of global and national capitalism, has always been an organic part of the supply-side. Second, by embracing the austerity agenda of ordoliberalism – a disciplinarian form of neoliberalism put forth by German-Austrian intellectuals and policy-makers – that had been inserted into the EU Treaties by Germany, this (ordoliberal) Left lost its constituency and attractiveness, contributing directly to the rise of the xenophobic Right across Europe.
The rise and decline of Left populism in France
The rise and decline of Left populism in France
(The rise and decline of Left populism in France)
- Author(s):PHILIPPE MARLIÈRE
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Political history, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:115-143
- No. of Pages:30
- Keywords:Jean-Luc Mélenchon; France Insoumise; Left populism; People; Elites; Oligarchy
- Summary/Abstract:In the run-up to the 2017 presidential election in France, Jean- Luc Mélenchon who, so far, had been associated with the Radical Left, formed a new movement called La France Insoumise (Unbowed France - FI). Mélenchon’s populist strategy in launching FI was blatant. This was an attempt to organize the masses along the lines of an agonistic cleavage between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’, as well as to forge a radical break with the collective forms of leadership and action on the French Left. With the demise of the Parti socialiste (PS), the gamble paid off as Mélenchon received significant support from segments of left-wing voters in the first round of the presidential election. In true populist fashion, the FI leader has attempted to federate ‘the people’, and not simply left-wing voters. He has ceased to use the notion of Left altogether. What defines FI’s populism is the role and the centrality of the leader. Mélenchon’s style, strategy and politics have energized fragments of the left-wing electorate (the young and working-class voters notably) but they have also created tensions with other parties of the Left. Those organizations fear that Mélenchon’s ‘populist moment’ may be detrimental to the future of left-wing politics in France altogether.
Return to ideology A solution to stumbling Social Democracies: The case of Corbyn
Return to ideology A solution to stumbling Social Democracies: The case of Corbyn
(Return to ideology A solution to stumbling Social Democracies: The case of Corbyn)
- Author(s):Ognjen Pribićević
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Political Philosophy, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:145-163
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:social democracy; Europe; neoliberalism; Third way; Corbyn; Labour Party
- Summary/Abstract:European social democracies are in crisis. For more than a decade, leading social democratic parties have been driven out of power or forced to form coalitions with conservative parties. In this century, they have already lost almost half of their electoral support. During the last four decades, these parties have failed to offer an alternative to neoliberalism. Moreover, even when in power, they have pursued almost the same policies as conservative parties as in Germany and the United Kingdom during the chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder and tenure of Prime Minister Tony Blair. For the first time after almost half a century, an alternative to neoliberalism emerged in the United Kingdom, when the left-oriented politician Jeremy Corbyn took over the Labour Party. Corbyin served as leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. His plan, to nationalize public utilities, raise taxes on the rich and scrap university tuition fees, won strong support among voters, especially the younger generation. Like the neoliberal conservatives in the 1980s, Corbyn not only wanted to win elections but sought to change the political agenda in the UK. Similar developments have been seen among the Left in Germany and France. It is not only the destiny of the social democrats that depends on the success of these new leftist projects but also the destiny of Europe as a whole since social democratic policies have crucially contributed to its economic progress and democratic stability following the Second World War.
Economic and monetary integration: Theory, practice and experience in the EU periphery
Economic and monetary integration: Theory, practice and experience in the EU periphery
(Economic and monetary integration: Theory, practice and experience in the EU periphery)
- Author(s):JOSÉ CASTRO CALDAS
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Economy, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development, Financial Markets
- Page Range:165-183
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:economic integration; political integration; Hayek; Myrdal; Portugal
- Summary/Abstract:During and immediately after World War II, economic integration was conceived by both (neo)liberals and social democrats as the only available antidote to a repetition of such a catastrophe. For neoliberals, market-enhancing economic integration was conceived as the appropriate context for the flourishing of the liberal project. For social democrats, on the other hand, market-embedding integration was viewed as a precondition not only for peace but for development. The chapter traces the intellectual origins and rationale of both perspectives. The European Economic Community emerged out of a compromise of those contrasting views on economic integration, and has evolved through time, especially since the inception of the European Monetary Union (EMU), into an entity that very much materializes the (neo)liberal expectations and the social-democratic fears. This chapter assesses that evolution, in general. It finally considers, in particular, the experience and prospects of being in the EU and the EMU of a peripheral country: Portugal.
Social Democracy and Radical Left in the European South: Strategic and governmental experimentation in the cauldron of the crisis
Social Democracy and Radical Left in the European South: Strategic and governmental experimentation in the cauldron of the crisis
(Social Democracy and Radical Left in the European South: Strategic and governmental experimentation in the cauldron of the crisis)
- Author(s):KATERINA LABRINOU, IOANNIS BALAMPANIDIS
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Political Theory, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:185-205
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Crisis; European South; Social Democracy; Radical Left; Government formation
- Summary/Abstract:During the crisis, the Radical Left, especially in the European South, accelerated its course from marginality to mainstream, while social democracy found itself trapped in its previous strategic orientations. We propose to examine the two political families from a relational and comparative perspective, focusing on the interaction of Social Democratic and Radical Left parties as they have evolved in a series of national cases (Greece, Portugal and Spain) and, in particular, during the political and electoral cycle of 2015-2017 – with a special focus on the emblematic Greek case and the stunning rise of SYRIZA. The strategic responses of these parties to the critical juncture of the crisis, characterized by converging or deviating paths between the two ‘enemy brothers’, shed light on their political-ideological transformations and adaptations.
Post-Dayton (im)possibilities for the Left in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Post-Dayton (im)possibilities for the Left in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Post-Dayton (im)possibilities for the Left in Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Author(s):Jasmin Hasanović
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Special Historiographies:, Sociology of Politics, Politics and Identity, Wars in Jugoslavia
- Page Range:207-237
- No. of Pages:31
- Keywords:Bosnia and Herzegovina; nationalism; ethnopolitics; Left
- Summary/Abstract:This paper aims to analyse the political environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an effort to look for both the reasons for the failures of establishing a new political and social alternative to the ethno-determined narrative, and also the possibilities for overcoming it. Could Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Dayton-constructed reality provide a chance for the emergence of a new, radical Left, or does it rather pose the main obstacle to it? Finally, what are the leftist alternatives to the current state of division, a situation that is advantageous to ethno-elites in their position as the new political and economic classes? Where – and what – is the Left in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina?
What’s left of the Left in Serbia following the restoration of capitalism?
What’s left of the Left in Serbia following the restoration of capitalism?
(What’s left of the Left in Serbia following the restoration of capitalism?)
- Author(s):Jovo Bakić
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Political Philosophy, Politics and society, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:239-257
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:Left; radical democracy; socialist legacy; symbolic hegemony; world capitalist system
- Summary/Abstract:The Left in Serbia shares the general weaknesses of the European Left, which has found itself in an unsteady position since 1989. However, there are certain specific features of the Serbian Left, related to both the Yugoslav socialist past and the 1990s legacy of the Milošević regime, that make its prospects even worse. Socialist Yugoslavia, which emerged from the self-styled ‘Socialist Revolution’ and was developed within the framework of self-management and non-aligned policies, has still retained some negative legacies from the standpoint of symbolically hegemonic Serbian conservative and liberal nationalism with which the Left in Serbia must cope today. Socialist Yugoslavia did leave behind some positive legacies, but, after 1989, these were cancelled out by the extremely negative legacy inherited by the Serbian Left from the Serbian president Slobodan Milošević and his wife Mirjana Marković. As the leaders of two parties, the Socialist Party of Serbia (Socijalistička partija Srbije, SPS), and the Yugoslav Left (Jugoslovenska levica, JUL) respectively, they incorporated values of nationalism and a form of specific political capitalism at the periphery of the world capitalist system. Today’s SPS collaborates with the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska napredna stranka, SNS) on nearly all neoliberal legislative initiatives and policies. Despite these numerous negative legacies and the peripheral position, a new young generation of radical democrats and leftists in Serbia, such as the Civil Front and the Radical Left Party (Partija radikalne levice), is now involved in various social and political initiatives and movements.
Challenges for the Left to go global: The disparity between centre and periphery
Challenges for the Left to go global: The disparity between centre and periphery
(Challenges for the Left to go global: The disparity between centre and periphery)
- Author(s):Natalija Mićunović
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Political Philosophy, Politics and society, Comparative politics, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:261-281
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:left; internationalism; inequality; periphery
- Summary/Abstract:Conflicting narratives of resistance exist within the contemporary European Left. One of the obstacles for the consolidation of contemporary European movements, which identify themselves with leftist traditions and/or goals is that the definition of ‘Left’ is not only blurred, but is furthermore divided into factions, which are continuously growing apart. These narratives are not necessarily conflicting, but they do emphasize different values and garner support from different groups. They also exhibit highly divergent levels of concern for rights of the growing refugee and immigrant population in Europe, women’s rights, LGBT rights and minority rights in their respective countries. The growing aggressiveness of corporate capitalism leaves neither little room for the consolidation of those narratives, nor much chance for their separate success. In order for such narratives to become international, there needs to be an increased openness towards global cohesion, since the current dismissal of the periphery with all its immanent difficulties makes it impossible for peripheral movements and experiences to be perceived as internationally relevant.
Towards a new European internationalist project without false dilemmas: against/within/outside the European Union
Towards a new European internationalist project without false dilemmas: against/within/outside the European Union
(Towards a new European internationalist project without false dilemmas: against/within/outside the European Union)
- Author(s):Catherine Samary
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Comparative politics, Sociology of Politics
- Page Range:283-309
- No. of Pages:27
- Keywords:Greek crisis; Brexit; Sovereign; Internationalist; Intertwined territorial levels
- Summary/Abstract:The Greek trauma has revealed the inability of the European Left to unite on a common vision and goal concerning the European Union (EU). The referendum in the United Kingdom (UK) – one of the EU’s financial centres – and subsequent ‘Brexit’ has been another bitter illustration of this crisis of orientation. This chapter will address the false binary choice, in which the Left has been trapped: to ‘remain’ within the EU and accept its rules or to ‘leave’ in the name of ‘national sovereignty’ expressed by dominant ultra-neoliberal and/or racist currents. Looking through the lens of subaltern populations/classes of the population – be they native or migrant, within the centre or within the different (internal and external) semi-peripheries of the EU – this chapter suggests how a new internationalist European Left should oppose all discriminations, relationships of domination, and xenophobic policies at all intertwined territorial levels and fight for social and environmental justice across them. It further offers proposals as to how such a new internationalist European Left should delegitimize non-democratic institutions and treaties that are destructive for social rights and the environment, and begin to build alternative self-organized counter powers, to resist market competition and to build new popular and freely shared sovereign relations, which would protect and extend collective goals against the privileges of the few
About the authors
About the authors
(About the authors)
- Author(s):Author Not Specified
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Politics / Political Sciences, History, Philosophy, Social Sciences
- Page Range:311-315
- No. of Pages:5
