Description
Book SynopsisThis book takes an in-depth look into recent developments in European social democracy. It begins by highlighting the somewhat paradoxical turn by a number of social democratic parties towards enhanced support for European integration, a move that has occurred despite the apparently neoliberal' direction of much of EU policy-output.
A critical realist method is adopted, informed by both Marxist and anarchist critiques of social democratic parties, to argue that we can view this paradoxical development as resulting from the inherently unstable representation of constituents' demands for decommodification, a process central to traditional social democratic parties. In making this argument, the book traces the transformation from traditional' to new' (or third way') social democratic parties in the UK, Sweden, France, Italy and Spain. It also outlines some of the most important developments in social democratic policy-making at the European level. The book therefore
Table of Contents
1. The Paradox of the ‘New’ Social Democratic Turn to ‘Social Europe’ 2. Analyzing Party Change: A Critical Realist Method 3. Decommodification, Recommodification, and Crisis: The Transformation to ‘New’ Social Democracy 4. ‘New’ Social Democratic Party Relations and the Turn to ‘Social Europe’ 5. (The Absence of) Social Democracy at the EU-Level
