Autumn thoughts in election season

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

“The implosion of neoliberal ‘turbo-capitalism’ in the autumn of 2008 should have been the moment for social democratic parties to come in from the cold but more than two years on social democracy is in retreat— electorally weak — intellectually incoherent.” — Mehdi Hasan and Jonathan Derbyshire

“What has been missing from center-left parties is any substantive philosophy of the public good.” The center-left needs “a much richer conception of the ‘aspirations’ of ordinary citizens”

Center-left governments have a fetish of ever-increasing ‘growth’ — improved productivity, technological innovation…[but] not as ‘instruments’ for enhancing people’s ‘liberty.’ Set against ‘consumerism’s promise of happiness’ [Ernst Hillebrand] must be ‘a vision of an alternative society.’

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has its limits not only as ‘an indicator of economic performance [Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz]; but also as an indicator of ‘social progress.’

“Economic growth is not an end in itself.… ‘GDP measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile.’” [Robert Kennedy]

“Measuring economic performance and production is one thing. Measuring citizens’ quality of life is quite another.”

“[Center-left] politicians must be ‘moral’ reformers, rather than ‘mechanical’ reformers focused on ends, not means.” Center-left politicians “need to see that their task consists as much in moral persuasion and argument in favor of the fundamental values of equality, social solidarity and genuine liberty as it does in pulling on the levers of power.”

The center-left can no longer afford to masquerade as “centrist technocrats.” They must begin their own reform by “radically rethinking and expanding their understanding of progress and prosperity.”

Sources and notes
“After Growth: The Future of Social Democracy” (Mehdi Hasan and Jonathan Derbyshire in Social Europe Journal) October 25, 2010, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/10/after-growth-the-future-of-social-democracy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+goodsociety+%28Social+Europe+Journal+%C2%BB+Good+Society+Debate%29

“The implosion of neoliberal ‘turbo-capitalism’ in the autumn of 2008 should have been the moment for social democratic parties to come in from the cold. More than two years on, however, social democracy is in retreat across the Continent, electorally weak and intellectually incoherent.”— Mehdi Hasan and Jonathan Derbyshire

Mehdi Hasan studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Christ Church, Oxford University, and is senior politics editor at the New Statesman and a former news and current affairs editor at Channel 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Hasan

Jonathan Derbyshire is a literary journalist whose work has been published in the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and the Financial Times; he is culture editor of the New Statesman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Derbyshire

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Prudence, civic duty, public reasoning rest human future ─ Marquand

Edited excerpt, notes for Today’s Insight News by Carolyn Bennett

 “By rights, this should be a social-democratic moment. The economic crisis of the last two years has shown beyond doubt that the neoliberal economic paradigm, which has dominated academic theory and political practice for nearly thirty years, is – quite simply – wrong. Markets do not behave in the way that neoliberals say they do. They cannot safely be allowed to regulate themselves.  

“It is not the case that government failure is more common than market failure. The rising tide of market-induced growth does not float all boats. Fiscal deficits are not always bad. State management of the economy is necessary – in good times as well as in bad. The unhindered pursuit of individual self interest does not hold the key to prosperity and growth; the assumption that it does has helped to procure the most devastating fall in output and employment for eighty years.…

… The crash has sprung the trap. Market fundamentalism is no longer the monarch of all it surveys. A space for social-democratic discourse – perhaps even for a social-democratic paradigm – should surely have opened up. Yet, so far, the only response has been a deafening silence. 

“The Obama administration in the United States and the Brown government in Britain have signally failed to offer a new social-democratic approach to the new, post-crash world. Both seem bent on returning, as fast as they prudently can, to a cleaned-up version of business as usual…. On the Continental side of the English Channel and the North Sea, the landscape is equally bleak. In the heartland nations of the European Union, the right, not the left, is the chief beneficiary of the crash. [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy and (astonishingly) even the increasingly battered … [Italian Prime Minister Silvio] Berlusconi dominate their respective political communities.

“The implications are more profound – and a lot more painful – than most social democrats appear to realize. It is an illusion to think that, somewhere at the end of a rainbow, lies a shiny new political vision which would re-vitalize social democracy if only social democrats were clever enough, or eloquent enough – or possibly courageous enough – to discover and articulate it.… 

“This is not a call for political quietism: far from it. We, as a species, will need every ounce of intelligence, skill, courage, determination, forethought and generosity of spirit we possess to avert the catastrophe that looms ahead. But social democrats have no special lien on these. Other traditions – in particular, the conservative tradition of Burkean prudence and the republican tradition of civic duty and public reasoning – have as much to say to the tormented twenty-first century as ours.

“We should stop asking
Whether social democracy has a future

and ask instead

Whether the human race has a future.…”

Sources and notes

Eighteenth century British political leader and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797) was born in Dublin and educated at a Quaker boarding-school and at Trinity College, Dublin. His idea of a “Social Contract” involved generations past, present and future; and urged improvement through political change ─ change evolving over time: To Burke is attributed the line: “A disposition to preserve and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.” [Britannica and Cambridge Encyclopedia references]
 “A Deafening Silence,” political writer and academic, former Labour MP and chief adviser to the European commission David Marquand, January 19, 2010, Good Society Debate, Social Democracy, David Marquand, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/01/a-deafening-silence/
Marquand profile, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_marquand/profile.html

PROGRESSIVE LEFT Framing Fairer Future ─ Lucas

Caroline Lucas’s Good Society, Social Democracy article excerpt, minor editing By Carolyn Bennett for Today’s Insight News
“A positive future for social democracy depends upon a genuine political commitment to social and environmental justice”

Lucas is talking to Europe, but think USA, too
Increasing numbers of reports underline that happiness and well-being do not depend on endless economic growth and material wealth; but rather on contented families, strong communities, meaningful work and personal freedom. So it becomes clearer that the policies we need to live good lives are precisely the policies we need to tackle the environmental and social challenges we face today.

In order to reassert the values of social democracy and unite the left to protect the well-being of people and planet, we therefore need explicit policies designed to reduce inequality and reduce climate emissions. We must pull lower incomes up ─ in the short term through a living wage, in the longer term via Citizens Income ─ and, crucially, levy proportionate taxation on the highest incomes. Research by Compass has found considerable public support for a fairer tax system to redistribute wealth, with 78 per cent in a recent poll saying they would support a tax system whereby the richest 10 per cent pay at least the same percentage of their income in tax as the poorest 10 per cent. Fair policies to cut emissions through a system of individual carbon rationing will also play a key role in this new social democracy.

“What’s clear is that right-of-centre political ideology, with its fondness for free market deregulation, privatization and public spending cuts, does not hold the solutions to the challenges that we face. It is the responsibility of social democracy to combat the continued rise of the right by staying true to the values of its socialist roots and placing fairness at the heart of the political economy. We need a social democracy founded on ecological sustainability, wealth redistribution, cultural innovation and human well-being.

“The progressive left must provide a positive and hopeful vision for a greener, fairer future – anything less will amount to a political and a moral failure that Europe [Think USA too] simply cannot afford.”

Caroline Lucas is Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, and a Member of the European Parliament for the South East of England. Lucas is a leading authority on green politics, climate change, international trade, animal welfare and peace issues. She is standing in Brighton Pavilion as the Green PPC [Prospective Parliamentary Candidate] for the upcoming general election.


Sources and notes
“Where now for Social Democracy in Europe? (A positive future for social democracy depends upon a genuine political commitment to social and environmental justice),” by Caroline Lucas, January 15, 2010, http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/01/where-now-for-social-democracy-in-europe/
The United Kingdom’s “most influential ideas and action-based political pressure group with over 30,000 members and supporters enabling people to go out, take action and make real change happen,” Compass was launched in 2003 with publication of its Vision for the Democratic Left.
Compass is building the ideas and organization for a new progressive consensus based around its “core values of democracy, equality and sustainability ─ instead of silos, we know you cannot have one without the other two. As the planet gets hotter and the poor get poorer,” Compass campaigns “collaboratively with progressive politicians of all parties, pressure groups, trade unions, think tanks, NGOs, academics, activists, campaigners and across civil society. We’re building a coalition for a radical 21st century politics the country [UK] needs now.” Direction for the Democratic Left, http://www.compassonline.org.uk/index.asp; http://www.compassonline.org.uk/about/index.asp