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Chapter by Chapter ResourcesChapter Nine: Politics over Markets: Enduring Differences Between Left and Right
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When it comes to welfare spending, redistribution and taxation, there has been no big roll-back of the state. Moreover, left-wing and right-wing governments still seem to behave in a manner consistent with their ideologies. The differences might have narrowed in the 1990s but, if they have, this is due to the centre-right, as well as the centre-left, moderating its policies.
Social democratic parties have updated, but have not necessarily abandoned, their traditional goals and even the traditional means of achieving them. They are, however, being more honest with themselves and with electors about what they want to (and are able to) achieve.
Left and right can at times do things that look very similar but that does not mean that they are the same and that it makes no difference which side is in power. The selling-off of state-owned enterprises is another case in point. Left wing governments have privatized less because (like right-wing governments) they were ideologically committed to the policy but more because they needed the money.
The embrace by social democrats of the idea of flexible labour markets as a sensible supply-side response to unemployment and the need for a competitive economy is not necessarily a new departure in a right-wing direction
The EU is dedicated to opening up Europe to competition and encouraging governments into making structural changes, but this is not necessarily inimical to the interests of ordinary people, nor is it a passive surrender to markets.
It makes political and economic sense for parties to continue to differentiate themselves from their main opponents. This is especially the case in PR systems, but differences are still evident in countries operating FPP.
The welfare state is not dead, nor is it in imminent danger. There is no race to the bottom on workers’ terms and conditions driven by supposedly footloose firms.
If voters are nonetheless finding it increasingly difficult to tell the mainstream parties apart, this is not an adequate explanation for the rise of more extreme parties on the right.
(For general web materials on European Politics see Tim Bale's Internet Guide)
www.tni.org
Left wing takes on neo-liberalism
www.stockholm-network.org
Neo-liberal enthusiasts
1. How might we tell whether having a left or right wing government makes any difference to a country? Going on the evidence, does it make a difference?
2. Why did some on the centre left of politics in Europe think social democratic and labour parties needed to ‘modernize’ and follow a ‘Third Way’?
3. Privatization may still be fashionable – in some parts of Europe, at least. But is it quite as thorough going as many assume?
4. Are so called ‘supply side’ economic policies necessarily right wing?
5. Figures suggest that the era of ‘tax and spend’ in Europe is not really over: why do you think this might be?
6. In your opinion, is the EU locking in neo liberalism in Europe or is it, instead, something of an obstacle to free market, ‘Anglo Saxon’ capitalism?
7. Does a move toward the centre right make electoral sense for Europe’s social democratic parties? Even if it does, is it possible that the move is more one of positioning than policies, rhetoric rather than reality?
8. It is not uncommon to hear the rise of far right parties in Europe being blamed in part on the decline in difference between mainstream parties of the centre right and the centre left, as well as on the apparent failure of the latter to do much for the ‘losers’ of globalization. What do you think of this argument?
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