What does Hamburg mean for the SPD?
12 March 2011 _ Michael Miebach
A strong economic platform delivered a resounding victory for the SPD’s Olaf Scholz in Hamburg. Desperately trying to win back frustrated voters from the left looks futile. mehr
Not the same old Sweden
14 October 2010 _ Katrine Kielos
It's not easy being a social democrat. When we stick to our political programmes and lose, they say it's because we're outdated. When we try to renew our political programmes and lose, they say it's because we've betrayed our roots. The solution is simple: don't lose. That used to be the genius of Swedish social democracy. mehr
The rise and fall of New Labour
3 June 2010 _ Anthony Giddens
The era of Labour hegemony is over. How should we assess its legacy? It is conventional these days to disparage the record of Labour in government over the past thirteen years. Even quite supportive observers tend to argue that little of substance has been achieved. For the more swingeing critics, Labour in power - Labour as New Labour - has been more than a disappointment, it has been a disaster. The party led an onslaught on civil liberties, betrayed leftist ideals, failed to make any impact on inequality and, worst of all, embarked upon a calamitous war in Iraq. mehr
Progress in an age of fear?
14 May 2010 _ Tobias Dürr
On October 19th 2009 Tony Judt gave a speech at New York University in which focused on the history and the future perspective of a "Social Democracy of Fear”. His essay was published in the New York Review of Books. In addition, Judt published his book "Ill fares the land”. Based on both publications, the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, a Dutch Think Tank associated with the Dutch Labour Party PvDA, started an online debate. mehr
Dangerous liaisons! Niebuhrians and Neocons
10 August 2009 _ Therese Feiler
Our involvement in the Afghanistan War is inextricably intertwined with that of the United States, whether through a pacta sunt servanda imperative or acceptance of a certain political mindset.* To understand this mindset, we need to poke around a little in recent American intellectual history. Much ink has been spilt on how the Bush era was determined by neoconservatism, but what about Obama’s intellectual background? mehr