Word: lefts
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...goes industry, so goes social democracy. Merkel is winning in Germany because support for the SPD, once in the mid-forties at the polls, is now down to less than 25%. With its base cracking, the left does what comes naturally; it splinters. In Germany, the first to bolt were the Greens in the 1970s, with a policy mix of anarchy, culture wars, environmentalism and pacifism. They are now safely on the road to embourgeoisement, and no wonder: the bulk of their supporters - teachers, social workers, the "caring classes" - are employed by the state. Next to go was the hard...
...This is a puzzle; after all, we are talking about a left that not so long ago produced Prime Ministers such as Romano Prodi in Italy, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in Britain, Gerhard Schröder in Germany, and Presidents, like François Mitterrand, who ruled France for 14 years. The puzzle is sharpened by the current crop of center-right leaders, who are either not very exciting (Merkel) or much too exciting (Sarkozy and Berlusconi, with their flashy or buffo theatrics...
...what is happening? First, all over the map, Conservative or Christian Democratic parties have been moving to the left. They have given us social democracy without the Social Democrats. They have gone environmentalist and welfarist; they are slowly but purposefully appropriating even the cultural issues of the left, like gay rights and feminism. Why should voters shop on the left if they can get what they want from the likes of Cameron or Merkel? When did you last hear of radical pro-market reforms from Sarkozy and Berlusconi? (See pictures of Sarkozy...
...those right-of-center leaders have taken a page from Bill Clinton's breviary on "triangulation." Here is the right, there is the left, and we sail straight through the middle. Or from Winnie-the-Pooh who answered, when asked whether he preferred honey or condensed milk on his toast, that he would take both, but could do without the bread. Pooh...
...Still, there may be more to this tale than the electoral cycle. The longer-term forces go back to the late 19th century, when industrialization threw up reformist parties of the left everywhere. Their natural clientele was a rising industrial proletariat; their natural program was the welfare state and income redistribution. But those days in Europe are gone. The milieu of such parties is evaporating, and that is why even in this economic crisis, social democratic parties are not scoring with more spending, taxes and goodies. Where is the working class in Britain, the first industrialized nation, where manufacturing contributes...