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Chapter by Chapter ResourcesChapter Nine: Politics over economics: enduring differences between left and right
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Politics - or at least the occupation of office by one party rather than another - can and sometimes does make a difference, if not a huge one.
The oft-heard assertion that the social democratic centre-left, and indeed Europe as a whole, is drifting towards policies that are traditionally associated with the more neo-liberal centre-right needs qualifying. Evidence for it on several key indicators - privatisation, labour market policy, and the supposed end of 'tax and spend' - presents a decidedly mixed picture.
The equally familiar assertion that the EU's economic governance and its single market and currency will 'lock-in' neo-liberalism may also be wide of the mark, as are suggestions from the other side of the ideological spectrum that European integration necessarily promotes corporatist sclerosis.
The facts about European political economy and the state in Europe need to be separated from the hype: for instance, welfare provision is not in terminal decline in the west and has survived the postcommunist transition in the east; its systematic varieties, like those of capitalism, still seem to exist. Politics continues to engage with, if not necessarily to trump, economics.
There are sound political (and more specifically electoral) reasons why the centre-left is unlikely 'meld' or 'morph' into the centre right.
The idea that such melding and morphing explains the rise of far-right parties across Europe is deeply flawed, however attractive it seems to pundits and politicians alike.
(For general web materials on European Politics see Tim Bale's Internet Guide)
Statistics and Reports on the European Economy can be searched for at the University of Auckland, and
Eurostat
For think tanks across Europe, see the National Institute for Research Advancement
1. How might we tell whether having a left- or a right-wing government makes any difference to a country? Going on the historical 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. Privatisation 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 isn't 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?
Germany's Grand Coalition, 2005-?
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