World
Social Democracy
This series of posts is collected in Phenomenal World Volumes 001: Market Economy, Market Society: Interviews and Essays on the Decline of European Social Democracy edited by Maya Adereth, and featuring contributions from Adam Przeworski, Stephanie Mudge, David Broder, Juan Andrade, and Jonah Birch.
The interviews and essays compiled here revolve around two related questions pertaining to the social democratic governments of Europe and their decline: what motivated left-leaning governments to pursue neoliberal restructuring, and was there, contra TINA, an alternative?
Download the volume in spread format.
Download the volume in single-page format.
Democracy or the Market
Third wayism and the problem of representation.
The problem of democratic representation has always turned on the question of the “have-nots”—that is, not only those without wealth and property, but also those marginalized on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, origin, religion and education. Even in a…
Revolution, Reform, and Resignation
In the 1980s, the left abandoned its language of transformation. Can it be regained?
Some time in 1991 I was invited to give a talk to the Andalusian Confederation of the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE). Afterwards, the secretary of the confederation walked me back to my hotel. I asked him why there was…
François Mitterrand’s Austerity Turn
The rise and fall of the French Road to socialism.
The history of French socialism is filled with famous and heroic dates: 1789; 1848; 1871 1936; 1968. But less well remembered is another date of great significance: 1981. It was in May of that year that the French left achieved…
Feminism in the Union
An interview with feminist activist and trade unionist Begoña San José.
Begoña San José is a feminist activist and trade union leader.
New System, New Society
An interview with former Prime Minister of Spain Felipe González.
Felipe González was Prime Minister of Spain from 1982-1996.
Revolution in the Long Run
An interview with Hector Maravall on the Communist Party of Spain, the decline of unions, and Felipe González's modernization program.
Hector Maravall is a long time member of the PCE, a labor lawyer, and a leader of the Comisiones Obreras, the largest trade union in Spain.
Transitions
Four voices on Spain's transition from the Franco dictatorship to parliamentary monarchy — and what didn't change.
It’s been some time since the term “transition” was fully incorporated into day-to-day usage in contemporary Spanish. It refers to the process of political change that began during the second half of the 1970s, a process which transformed Spain from…
Party Unity and Renewal
An interview with Roger Martelli on the decline of the French Communist Party.
Roger Martelli is a historian of the French Communist Party.
Confronting Globalization
An interview with François Morin.
François Morin was technical adviser to Jean le Garrec at the State Secretary for Public Sector Expansion from 1981–1982 and an adviser to Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy.
Objective Constraints
An interview with Anicet le Pors on the PCF, the Common Program, and the constraints on left governance.
Anicet le Pors is a French communist party politician who served as a member of the French Senate from 1977 to 1981, and Minister of Civil Service and Reforms from 1981 to 1984.
The Italian Left After Keynesianism
From stagflation to the transformation of Italian left parties.
In 1977, Eric Hobsbawm published a book of interviews with Giorgio Napolitano, a leading figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI)’s gradualist wing, the miglioristi. Hobsbawm proclaimed himself a “spiritual member” of the PCI and intended this book to depict…
Party of the Future?
An interview with Giuliano Amato
Giuliano Amato was a member of the Italian Socialist Party and Italian Prime Minister from 1992–93 and 2000–2001, Treasury Minister in 1999–2000, and Minister of the Interior, 2006–2008.
Changing Bases
An interview with Emanuele Macaluso, Italian trade unionist and politician with the Italian Communist Party (PCI)
Emanuele Macaluso was an Italian trade unionist and politician with the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
Creative Destruction
An interview with Claudio Petruccioli
Claudio Petruccioli is an Italian politician who was president of the Italian national broadcast network RAI from 2005–2009.