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  • Acknowledgments  vii
    Introduction: The New World of the Center-Left / James Cronin, George Ross, and James Shoch  1
    Part I: Ideas, Projects, and Electoral Realities  
    Social Democracy's Past and Potential Future / Sheri Berman  29
    Historical Decline or Change of Scale? The Electoral Dynamics of European Social Democratic Parties, 1950–2009 / Gerassimos Moschonas  50
    Part II: Varieties of Social Democracy and Liberalism  
    Once Again a Model: Nordic Social Democracy in a Globalized World / Jonas Pontusson  89
    Embracing Markets, Bonding with America, Trying to Do Good: The Ironies of New Labour / James Cronin  116
    Reluctantly Center-Left? The French Case / Arthur Goldhammer and George Ross  141
    The Evolving Democratic Coalition: Prospects and Problems / Ruy Teixeira  162
    Party Politics and the American Welfare State / Christopher Howard  188
    Grappling with Globalization: The Democratic Party's Struggles over International Market Integration / James Shoch  210
    Part III: New Risks, New Challenges, New Possibilities  
    European Center-Left Parties and New Social Risks: Facing Up to New Policy Challenges / Jane Jenson  241
    Immigration and the European Left / Sofía Pérez  265
    The Central and Eastern European Left: A Political Family under Construction / Jean-Michel De Waele and Sorina Soare  290
    European Center-Lefts and the Mazes of European Integration / George Ross  319
    Conclusion: Progressive Politics in Tough Times / James Cronin, George Ross, and James Shoch  343
    Bibliography  363
    About the Contributors  395
    Index  399
  • James Cronin

    George Ross

    James Shoch

    Sheri Berman

    Gerassimos Moschonas

    Jonas Pontusson

    Arthur Goldhammer

    Ruy Teixeira

    Christopher Howard

    Jane Jenson

    Sofia Pérez

    Jean-Michel de Waele

    Sorina Soare

  • “[D]istinguished scholars offer reflections on the past struggles and
    accomplishments of left-leaning parties in Europe and the United States and
    speculate about their future. . . . The book makes the important point that as advanced societies navigate the current moment of global economic uncertainty, liberals and social democrats have a new opportunity to regroup and rethink policies that promote economic security and social justice.”—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

    “This book provides a timely update of much of this literature… that will be of particular use to students seeking to get up to speed with the empirical and historical development of social democracy in these particular concrete contexts. Most of the chapters also bring this concrete discussion further up to date than it currently is in most other existing literature on social democratic parties.”—David Bailey, West European Politics

    Reviews

  • “[D]istinguished scholars offer reflections on the past struggles and
    accomplishments of left-leaning parties in Europe and the United States and
    speculate about their future. . . . The book makes the important point that as advanced societies navigate the current moment of global economic uncertainty, liberals and social democrats have a new opportunity to regroup and rethink policies that promote economic security and social justice.”—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

    “This book provides a timely update of much of this literature… that will be of particular use to students seeking to get up to speed with the empirical and historical development of social democracy in these particular concrete contexts. Most of the chapters also bring this concrete discussion further up to date than it currently is in most other existing literature on social democratic parties.”—David Bailey, West European Politics

  • “This is an important book. It is thorough. It is balanced. It is judicious. Its verdict on the prospects for the left is severe and offers no consolation prizes, yet it makes no facile predictions. It locates the present crisis of the left in a wider perspective, with a series of intelligent comparative essays buttressed by equally intelligent essays focusing on specific regions or issues. It pays abundant attention, as it should, to the United States, too often overlooked in such surveys. Above all, it refuses to simplify complex issues and complex problems.”—Donald Sassoon, author of One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century

    What’s Left of the Left provides the best synthetic overview available of center-left parties in Europe and the United States. Focusing on their development and fortunes since the 1970s, this collection fills a striking gap in the literature in a knowledgeable and informative way”—Peter A. Hall, co-editor of Changing France: The Politics That Markets Make

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  • Description

    In What’s Left of the Left, distinguished scholars of European and U.S. politics consider how center-left political parties have fared since the 1970s. They explore the left’s responses to the end of the postwar economic boom, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the erosion of traditional party politics, the expansion of market globalization, and the shift to a knowledge-based economy. Their comparative studies of center-left politics in Scandinavia, France, Germany, southern Europe, post–Cold War Central and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States emphasize differences in the goals of left political parties and in the political, economic, and demographic contexts in which they operate. The contributors identify and investigate the more successful center-left initiatives, scrutinizing how some conditions facilitated them, while others blocked their emergence or limited their efficacy. In the contemporary era of slow growth, tight budgets, and rapid technological change, the center-left faces pressing policy concerns, including immigration, the growing population of the working poor, and the fate of the European Union. This collection suggests that such matters present the left with daunting but by no means insurmountable challenges.

    Contributors
    Sheri Berman
    James Cronin
    Jean-Michel de Waele
    Arthur Goldhammer
    Christopher Howard
    Jane Jenson
    Gerassimos Moschonas
    Sofia Pérez
    Jonas Pontusson
    George Ross
    James Shoch
    Sorina Soare
    Ruy Teixeira

    About The Author(s)

    James Cronin is Professor of History at Boston College and an affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

    George Ross is ad personam Chaire Jean Monnet at the University of Montreal, Hillquit Professor in Labor and Social Thought Emeritus at Brandeis University, and Faculty Associate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

    James Shoch is Associate Professor of Government at California State University, Sacramento.
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