Future of the Democratic Left in Western industrial countries debated

Alternative Staff

April 2005

This volume is a compilation of papers that highlight the transformation of Western leftist parties from romantic revolutionaries to pragmatic realists. This meant that these parties shifted on the political spectrum from the left to the left-center.

The chapters are thorough, descriptive and insightful and even though the different authors offer different writing styles, some studies in this book are attractive and entertaining while other chapters are dull and boring.

Readers will particularly enjoy the story of leftist failure in the US, where post World War II prosperity hindered the evolution of the concept of society. This individualism was emulated in England under Conservative premier Margaret Thatcher in the 80s. Magi became famous for her statement: "There is no society, only individuals," in reference to her rightist party's stance against the social welfare state.

The rightist leadership of England extended for most of the 1980s and 90s until the Conservative Party's several mistakes, coupled with the leftist Labor Party's "reconsideration" of itself leading to its transformation into the New Labor, brought Labor to power. When in power, the leftist English party moved away from leftism and the welfare state toward what it depicted as a "Third Way" style of governorship, which included more liberal economic policies.

But such a shift was not easy in France, where despite the Socialist Party's implementation of rightist economic policies starting the mid 1980s, the socialists could not express out loud their adoption of more center-leftist policies for the fear that their strong communist allies might abandon them.

Meanwhile, in Germany the social democrats endorsed "Third Way" policies and came to power.

In Poland, the disbanded Communist Party transformed itself into a Social Democratic Party and won over the Solidarity Movement, known for its freedom fighting under the communists before 1989. The reason for this leftist victory, the book argues, was the virtual inexistence of the middle-class which traditionally supports rightist parties and their market economy theses.

In Russia, the underdeveloped political culture has been unable to sustain majoritarian politics. Therefore, social democracy failed facing a dominant popular political culture based on a clientele network and favoritism penetrating the state bureaucracy.

The volume ends with a concise conclusion by the book's editor Erwin Hargrove. The book is both entertaining and enlightening for all those interested in political studies and political philosophy.