From Defensive to Assertive Social Democracy

The Social Democracy Research Network (SDRN) is a global network of academics and researchers working in the field of social democracy broadly defined. SDRN is interdisciplinary and seeks to improve communication and collaboration amongst its members. It is run from London as a cooperation project between University College London’s (UCL) Department of European Political and Social Studies, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung London Office and Social Europe Journal.

SDRN has two main activities: the organisation of regular academic meetings in London and the publication of a new type of peer-reviewed academic paper series hosted at UCL, which is open to submissions from the whole of the global network. The paper series aims to become a natural outlet for the latest research in the field combining highest academic standards with speed of production and wider societal relevance and impact.The neoliberal push for increasing the role of markets has put social democracy into a defensive position, but this should be easy to resist. Marketisation is often a useful development, and as such can be embraced by social democrats. But it often also has negative implications that are widely recognized, and which need to be confronted and dealt with. Meanwhile, in practice so-called neoliberal policies are often about strengthening corporate power rather than markets. Dealing with these issues has been social democracy’s specific historic role, so a period of intensified markets should leave it better placed than any other political movement to welcome the role of markets while being alert to their negative externalities; to seek the creative possibilities of diversity in the face of neoliberal hegemony; and to distinguish between true markets and corporation-dominated ones.

The paper has also been published as Social Europe Journal: Research Essay, No.1, December 2013.