Progressive Politics after the Crash: Governing from the Left(Policy Network)

Those who hoped the collapse of financial markets would usher in the end of neoliberalism and rehabilitate support for traditional social democratic policies programmes have been disappointed. It is not only the irrationality of markets which is the focus of public discontent, but the inefficiency of states and the inability of elected governments to humanise and control global market capitalism. So, in the aftermath of the 2008 crash prompted by the failure of US financial services conglomerate, Lehman Brothers, this book addresses a deceptively simple question: what is to be done? It makes the case for a new, post-crisis settlement harnessing the dynamic traditions of social liberalism and social democracy as the foundation for progressive reforms geared towards alleviating crisis aftershocks and addressing the deep-seated structural challenges afflicting Western capitalist democracies.

Table of Contents:
Preface - Ernst Stetter, Foundation for European Progressive Studies Introduction 1. Social democracy past and future: Its politics and paradigms - Peter Hall, Harvard University 2. The left's relationship with capitalism - Andrew Gamble, Cambridge University 3. A post?crisis centre?left: Progressive politics after an era of plenty - Alfred Gusenbauer and Ania Skrzypek, Next Left Part I: Growth, inequality and welfare 4. Is the West headed for a lost decade, and what can be done about it? - Jeffry Frieden, Harvard University 5. The financial crisis and the future of the eurozone - Paul De Grauwe, London School of Economics 6. Pre?distribution: Rebuilding the organizational foundations of democratic capitalism - Jacob Hacker, Yale University 7. Towards a new politics of production and middle class economic security - Will Marshall, Progressive Policy Institute 8. What comes after pro?growth progressives? - Lane Kenworthy, University of Arizona 9. Recreating solidarity: Social citizenship and participation - Jane Jenson, University of Montreal 10. The emerging intergenerational conflict: Re?writing the social contract between generations - Bruno Palier, Sciences Po, Paris 11. Affordable social investment beyond the Eurozone's austerity reflex - Anton Hemerijck, University of Amsterdam 12. European aspirations: GDP and beyond - Tony Atkinson, Oxford University Part II Trust, politics and power 13. “Crisis? What crisis?” Explaining the electoral performance of social democracy - Pippa Norris, Harvard University 14. The political sociology of cosmopolitanism and communitarianism and its impact on present and future of social democracy - Wolfgang Merkel, WZB (Social Science Research Centre Berlin) 15. Communitarian appeals: lost or anew? Social democracy in the 21st century - Sheri Berman, Barnard College, Columbia University 16. Taking Europe to Its extremes? The politicization of European integration in Western Europe - Catherine DeVries, Oxford University 17. Immigration and the European left: Anti?migration populism, identity and community - Matthew Goodwin, University of Nottingham and Robert Ford, University of Manchester 18. The rise of alternative social movements - Craig Calhoun, London School of Economics 18. Political space in the era of “post?democratic capitalism” - Claus Offe, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin 19. Towards an assertive social democracy - Colin Crouch, University of Warwick

About the Author :
Olaf Cramme is Director of Policy Network and a Visiting Fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. Previously, he worked as a Parliamentary Researcher at the Houses of Parliament. Patrick Diamond is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, Senior Research Fellow at Policy Network and Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He was formerly Head of Policy Planning in 10 Downing Street and Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister. Michael McTernan is Deputy Director of Policy Network. He is editor of the Policy Network Observatory and the monthly State of the Left report.