Next Left: where next for social democracy? The new policy agenda

1. Next Left: where next for social democracy? The new policy agenda

2. Patrick Diamond Policy Network and University of Oxford

3. Social democracy faces testing times in Europe and elsewhere: • Worst European election result since 1979 • Social democracy defeated in Scandinavia • Centre-left collapse in Eastern and Central Europe • Historic defeats in Britain and Germany: lowest vote share since 1918 • No centre-left recovery despite banking crisis, global recession, rising unemployment - now the social model is under threat

4. The pessimism about the centre-left’s prospects can be overdone: • Politics of despair: 2000s wasted decade in which social democracy acquiesced to neo-liberalism • Politics of nostalgia: 1945-70 ‘golden age’ for social democracy in which new welfare settlement was forged • Exaggerates success of neo-liberalism over last twenty years, and overestimates success of post-war social democracy Should build on, not reject, third way ‘Neue Mitte’ while adjusting to challenges of the present

5. Third way model of social democracy: • Dynamic knowledge-based economy • Strong civil society and public services • Modern government focused on partnership and decentralisation • Foreign policy through international co-operation 1990s period of relative calm and optimism in domestic and global affairs

6. What is social democracy? • Set of practices focused on redistribution, market regulation and social welfare • A persuasion not a fixed doctrine • Political approach built on security, fairness and co-operation • Social democracy has initiated institutional reform and reinvention in the past

7. The challenges of the present: • Twin crises: banking and budgetary shocks • Politics of austerity and fairness • Rise in scepticism about climate change • Demography and population ageing • Quality of life, work/life balance, well-being, family • European integration and enlargement

10. Is there a new idea for the left? • To conserve and protect the existing welfare state (Judt) • To promote greater economic equality (Wilkinson and Pickett) • To revive Keynesianism in the wake of the crisis (Desai) • To identify new sources of sustainability after capitalism (Nahles) Does this match up to the scale of the human crisis the world faces?

11. A new politics and a new relationship between the state and citizens: • The right want the crisis to undermine the state; left must change its role and direction • The state will increasingly need to share responsibility with citizens [co-production, cost-sharing, lifestyle management, conditionality] • Less focus on the state as provider • Politics itself will need to acknowledge intractable dilemmas and trade-offs • Revival of global institutions and global civil society

12. Concluding remarks: • Social democracy isn’t dead • Need to re-examine common principles that define it • About particular approach to politics, as much as new instruments and governing programmes • New wave of social democracy: drawing on rich inheritance of ideologies, ideas and institutions