The Crisis Of Socialism In Europe

The revolutions in Eastern Europe and the recasting of socialism in Western Europe since 1989 have given rise to intense debate over the origins, character, and implications of the "crisis" of socialism. Is socialism in ideological, electoral, or organizational decline? Is the decline inevitable or can socialism be revitalized? This volume draws together historians and political scientists of Eastern and Western European politics to address these questions. The collection begins with an historical overview of socialism in Western Europe and moves toward the suggestion of a framework for a post-socialist discourse. Among the topics covered are: the birth and death of communism and a regime type in Eastern Europe; how different forms of national communism were smothered by Sovietization in the postwar period; the origins of revolutions in Eastern Europe; the potential for social democracy in Hungary; the role of the Left in a reunified German; and directions for the Left in general. Contributors. Geoff Eley, Konrad Jarausch, Herbert Kitschelt, Christiane Lemke, Andrei Markovits, Gary Marks, Wolfgang Merkel, Norman Naimark, Iván and Szonja Szelénya, Sharon Wolchik

Is there a future for socialism in Europe? The collapse of the communist dictatorships and the electoral reverses suffered by social democratic parties have called into question the whole historical project of challenging the power of capitalism. Modern European Socialism examines social democratic and communist responses to the immense changes which have occurred in the world economy since the collapse of the post-war boom. The power of global capital to dictate the conditions for investment has made it virtually impossible to promote egalitarian policies at the level of the nation state. However, Wilde argues that socialism can renew its relevance at a European level, if the process of economic integration culminates in a fully-fledged European state.

With a combined focus on social democrats in Northern and Southern Europe, this book crucially broadens our understanding of the transformation of European social democracy from the mid-1970s to the early-1990s. In doing so, it revisits the transformation of this ideological family at the end of the Cold War, and before the launch of Third Way politics, and examines the dynamics and power relations at play among European social democratic parties in a context of nascent globalisation. The chronological, methodological and geographical approaches adopted allow for a more nuanced narrative of change for European social democracy than the hitherto dominant centric perspective. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of social democracy, the European Centre-left, political parties, ideologies and more broadly to comparative politics and European politics and history. The Introduction chapter of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

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In the 1970s industry in the West had reached its limits, precipitating a major discussion about how to solve the crisis. But what was going on in Eastern Europe parallel to this development? Were any similar trends being registered? The authors of this volume pursue the answers to these questions by studying the politics, economics, social and cultural movements of that time in the multiethnic countries of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. It becomes clear that these two countries were themselves in the midst of a latent crisis resulting from the global developments around them and from their own internal conflicts. The symptoms of this crisis were well known in expert circles, but not registered fully by either the political leaders or the citizens at large.