Reinventing the Left

Communism is dead, traditional social democracy is weak, and neo-liberalism has failed. Can the Left fill the vacuum? The essays in this book argue that there is a viable future for left-of-centre politics, but that it requires a radical break with the assumptions of the past. The deepening globalization of production, the break-up of working-class communities, and the limitations of the centralized state demand new thinking about economic renewal and social reform. Autonomy must supplement equality as the leading value of the Left; inequalities of power must be corrected outside the workplace as well as within it; markets must be directed and not abolished; and radical democracy must be established as an end in itself. In this book, Anthony Giddens and Perry Anderson debate social change in industrialized societies; Gordon Brown and Anne Phillips address the meaning and value of community; Michel Rocard and Will Hutton discuss alternative economic strategies; Gosta Esping-Andersen and Frances Fox Piven propose new ideas for the welfare state; and David Marquand and Jos de Beus set out competing visions for the European Union. This book combines social and economic analysis with radical prescription both for the substance of politics and its practice. It will be of interest to all those concerned with the future of democratic politics, and especially left-of-centre politics, in Europe and North America.