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CHAPTER 4 1989. By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed and elsewhere, notably in China, a process of economic reform had been initiated. Significant developments also took place within Western social democracy. Confronted by both the end of the post- 1945 economic boom, which had helped to sustain the politics of redistribution, and the shrinking size of the working class, socialist parties in many parts of the world went into ideological retreat during the 1980s and 1990s. In countries such as the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, this meant reaching an accommodation with globalization and accepting a wider role for the market in economic affairs. Nevertheless, the early twenty-first century brought indications of a revival of socialism. This was evident in, among other things, Jeremy Corbyn’s surprise victory in the UK Labour Party’s 2015 leadership election, the impact of Bernie Sanders on the race to become the Democratic Party nominee in the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections, and the emergence of left-wing populist movements such as Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain. Two explanations have been advanced for these developments. In the first, they have been a backlash against the politics of austerity , which was widely adopted as economies fell into recession and tax revenues plummeted in the aftermath of the 2007–09 global financial crisis. In the second, far-left parties and movements have tapped in to a growing mood of anti-establishment radicalism, sometimes called ‘anti-politics’ (see p. 171), that stems, in part, from a narrowing of the ideological divide between left- and right-wing parties. CORE THEMES One of the difficulties of analysing socialism is that the term has been understood in at least three distinctive ways. From one point of view, socialism is seen as an economic model, usually linked to some form of collectivization and planning. Socialism, in this sense, stands as an alternative to capitalism, the choice between these two qualitatively different productive systems traditionally being seen as the most crucial of all economic questions. However, the choice between ‘pure’ socialism and ‘pure’ capitalism was always an illusion, as all economic forms have, in different ways, blended features of both systems. Indeed, modern socialists tend to view socialism not so much as an alternative to capitalism, but as a means of harnessing capitalism to broader social ends. The second approach treats socialism as an instrument of the labour movement. Socialism, in this view, represents the interests of the working class and offers a programme through which the workers can acquire political or economic power. Socialism is thus really a form of ‘labourism’ , a vehicle for advancing the interest of organized labour. From this
perspective, the significance of socialism fluctuates with the fortunes of the working-class movement worldwide. Nevertheless, though the historical link between socialism and organized labour cannot be doubted, socialist ideas have also been associated with artisans, the peasantry and, for that matter, with political and bureaucratic elites. That is why, in this book, socialism is understood in a third and broader sense as a political creed or ideology, characterized by a particular cluster of ideas, values and theories. The most significant of these are:
Austerity: Sternness or severity; as an economic strategy, austerity refers to public spending cuts designed to eradicate a budget deficit, underpinned by faith in market forces. Labourism: A tendency exhibited by socialist parties to serve the interests of the organized labour movement rather than pursue broader ideological goals.
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