Is a Robust Social Democracy the Best the Left has to Offer?

The large center-left, allegedly social democratic parties in Europe and North America are increasingly becoming irrelevant, hollowed-out shells of their former selves by abandoning party core principles, core constituents, and largely embracing right-wing conservative ideology as their own in an attempt to be taken "seriously" by the electorate and media. A good example of this can be seen in Britain's Labour Party leader Ed Milliband's recent legitimization of the governing Conservatives austerity agenda. Three years away from the next general election, Labour has effectively endorsed the Conservative Party's ideology and managed to alienate their own supporters while doing nothing to persuade independent voters from choosing Labour in the process.

Europe's large social democratic parties, like Britain's Labour, Germany's SPD, Scandinavia's Social Democrats, as well as those in financially-stricken countries like Spain, Portugal, and Greece, currently offer no better alternative to their right-wing counterparts other than a less harsh version of conservative, neoliberal doctrine. The same can be said of the supposedly center-left Democratic Party in the United States, who have largely embraced austerity and right-wing economics so as to be considered "serious" and "responsible".

Germany's SPD has lost hundreds of thousands of members in only a few years

The mainstream Left thus finds itself in a predicament; they cannot stray too far to the left for policies for fear of becoming unelectable, but their rightward shift has angered vast swathes of their formerly-ardent supporters, who are leaving en masse to alternative leftist parties. This shift has meant that the Left, out of new ideas, are in danger of becoming (or finalizing their transition to) conservatives-lite - Labour, for example, is increasingly being perceived by their core supporters of offering essentially the same social and economic platform as the Conservatives.

The mainstream Left is out of ideas. It has proven itself unable to build upon its successes of the past. This begs the question: Is a robust social democratic society the best the Left has to offer?

For many decades, the Left was able to smooth out the rough edges of capitalism so as to create a better, more prosperous, more healthy, more progressive society. The safety net may vary from country to country, but its existence is unquestioned. Though unquestioned, it is still threatened. That is the crux of the problem for social democrats everywhere - the safety net is under attack, its future uncertain, and the very fact that it can be destroyed means that there is a potentially gaping hole in future society that will need to be filled to avoid mass poverty and deprivation. The Left needs to fill this hole, but at the moment, they have no idea how to.

Instead of building upon their past successes, parties of the Left are joining conservatives in tearing them down. Though many countries have succeeded in vastly reducing poverty, hunger, deprivation, etc., they have not abolished them. Unemployment, high at the moment due to the financial crisis, nonetheless remains a constant threat for millions.

The vast majority of Democrats voted along with Republicans to deregulate Wall Street in 1999

The Left must come up with new ideas, new movements, new ways to improve life so that even in a recession as deep as the current one, citizens may stay out of poverty, can remain employed, can enjoy a high standard of living, need not go hungry, need not lose their homes, their savings, their health. The Left must find a way to reverse the effects of financial policies of the past several decades that have resulted in increased productivity but stagnant wages and the vast majority of income and wealth growth going to an incredibly small amount of the population who was already affluent to begin with.

A living wage, unemployment insurance, universal healthcare, social security, and the rest of the safety net is good, but it is not enough. For social democracy is under attack, the safety net is being torn down bit by bit, and the Left in Europe and North America is at its ideologically weakest in decades.

Now is the time for the Left to reinvigorate itself. Now is the time for the Left to reassert itself. Now is the time for the Left to return and fulfill its time-honored goals. The Left must offer a true alternative to neoliberalism. The Left must renew itself, or it will fade, wither, and die.

Social Democracy in Sweden is Far From Dead

The September 19 general election in Sweden pitted the incumbent Alliance of moderates, centrists, and conservatives against the traditional heavyweights Social Democrats, in a bloc with the Greens and far left. The talk leading up to the election had been all about the Sweden Democrats, the far-right, anti-immigration party which had arisen out of neo-Nazi groups in the 1980s.

The Alliance had hoped for an increase in votes for its largest member, the Moderate Party, so that a majority government could be formed. In a country where the social welfare state is renowned and a source of pride, the architects of the "Swedish Model", the Social Democratic Party, were faced with the possibility of not only not regaining power (something they'd held for some 63 out of the previous 75 years) but also with going below the 30% threshold for the first time ever.

When the votes were finally tallied, the results were both expected and unexpected: While the Moderate Party's share of the vote increased, its partners' went down, leaving a razor-thin gap of 16 seats for the Alliance to form a majority in the 349-seat Riksdag. The Social Democrats did not do as badly as some had predicted, coming in at 30.8%, along with a further 7.2% for the Greens and 5.6% for the Left.

The Alliance has 172 seats, the Red-Green coalition 157 in the new Riksdag

It would seem then, that the nationalist Sweden Democrats, who gained 20 seats and 5.7% of the vote, would hold the balance between the Alliance and the Red-Green coalition. Except that neither party has stated they are willing to negotiate with them at all, meaning that the Alliance will have to rely upon at least some support from the Social Democrats, Greens, and the Left.

With this historic result, a conservative coalition has maintained political power after an election for the first time in since before World War Two. It is also the worst electoral result for the Social Democrats in almost a century, with some questioning whether this marks the demise of socialism and the welfare state in Sweden.

Such conjecture is premature, at best. Social democracy in Sweden is far from dead.

The economy in Sweden has remained quite stable throughout the global economic recession, and when the economy is going good, the party in power will reap the benefits. The Alliance coalition has been in power since 2006, and their limited privatization policies have helped to stimulate jobs at a time when other countries are unable to. Many have pointed to the combination of lower taxes and reduction in social benefits spending that the Moderates have implemented since they gained power as a sign that Swedes no longer appreciate the safety nets that the Social Democrats had put in place over several decades.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderate Party

Again, this type of conjecture is premature at best. Social democracy, and the Swedish people's appreciation for socialist policies, is far from dead.

While the Social Democrats scored only 0.8% higher than the Moderates on the national level, the local electoral results paint a rosier picture, with 32% and a six point lead over the Moderates for municipal and county results. Additionally, polls as late as the week before the election had been showing a probably majority for the Alliance, but this popularity seemed to go down after a debate over health care insurance seemed to paint the Moderates as forcing patients with severe illness and pain to work.

Swedes like the Moderates' handling of the economy, and see Fredrik Reinfeldt as a better leader for the country than his Social Democrat opponent. While the Moderates can make slight modifications to the welfare state, pruning the excessive branches from the socialist tree, as it were, any kind of deeper, more fundamental change would be most unwelcome among the Swedish population at large.

A case can be made in saying that the Social Democrats maybe had enforced too rigidly their ideology, and as a result were unable to react well enough to the political and economic climate they found themselves in in the mid-2000s, but general, widespread support for the social framework they had placed in Swedish society will remain.