[...] Francois Fejtõ, as he is known worldwide, has been committed to social democracy throughout his life and the present work is both a history of this political movement and a confrontation - both for author and reader - with the prospect of social democracy. We cannot expect a dispassionate analysis of the subject: scholarly objectivity notwithstanding, the essence of the book is best captured by the original French title: Social Democracy Despite Everything (La social-démocratie quand-même). [...]
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It is clear from the title that the book is concerned with more than the future of social democracy. The reader is also given a thorough overview of its history and development. A rather commonplace image of social democracy is modulated and refined by important details: Fejtõ points out, for instance, that the welfare state is not an invention of social democracy, and that Keynes and his circle were not social democrats. And to indicate how little political schemes may influence the practical application of the teachings of an economic school, it is sufficient to point out that neo-liberal economic policies have been pursued most consistently by conservative parties in the Western Hemisphere, while in Eastern Europe they have been taken up by the social democratic parties which arose from the former communist parties.
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In his search for a solution, the author has much of interest to say about the new directions to be pursued by social democracy. For instance, he understands that too close an attachment to the trade unions - bordering on dependency - may harm the democratic left wing. Fejtõ's prophecy of a split in social democratic parties did in fact materialise in the case of the British Labour Party. After an initial shift to the left after the so-called "gang of four" left to form the Social Democratic Party - which subsequently entered into an alliance with the Liberals - the Labour Party, first under Neil Kinnock and now under Tony Blair, has progressively loosened its ties with the trade unions.
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