Ineffective social democracy
The results of the French presidential elections have caused concern throughout Europe, including Greece. Lionel Jospin’s debacle sparked a lengthy debate over the causes of the collapse of France’s center-left administration. Local commentators are trying to interpret the electoral results and draw parallels with domestic developments. Many said the Socialist failure was a consequence of their liberal turn over the recent years, a turn which erased the right-left dichotomy and cut off social democracy from its electoral base. Others note that the reformism of Socialist governments made them into mere managerial bodies and subsequently estranged them from the social strata. This may be one side of the issue. But there is another side which has yet to be exposed. In France, Italy and Greece – where social democratic governments’ alienation from society is more obvious – public disaffection derives less from the liberal turn and more from the ineffectiveness of liberal policies. Reformism may have been declared in Greece as an idea but no one can claim that it was actually implemented or that it constituted the basis of sweeping reforms. PASOK’s policies, like those of the French Socialists, never shook off the ideological constructions typical of the 1980s. Policies were lacking or served double aims which rendered them ineffective. The government’s economic policies have been superficial. The government’s self-styled liberal turn remained trapped in protectionist logic. The expected growth never materialized, revenues were low and a redistribution that would improve ties with society was made impossible. The simplistic approach, according to which social democracy has to return to the 1980s model to win back the people, is ungrounded. Present conditions are different and those who ignore this are doomed to fall into oblivion rather than make a comeback.
