Social Democracy in Europe 4.0

In 1983, after a coalition of centre-rights (Kohl) and liberals (Genscher) pushed the social democrats (Brandt, Schmidt) out of government, German-British sociologist Lord Ralf Dahrendorf concluded: "We are witnessing the end of the social-democratic century in the OECD world." 1 He argued-as many others believed at that time-that the social democratic project had solved with bravery the great "social question" of reducing the poverty and social inequality imposed by the industrial area. "In a way," he even announced, "we (almost) all became Social Democrats" by taking for granted its basic institutions, such as the rule of law and (more or less) universal social security against the risk of health, old age and unemployment. Yet, he maintained, all the underlying assumptions or promises of social democracy-growth, labour, equality, rationality, state, and internationalism-no longer hold. Social democracy had no answers to the questions of the 21st century: growth and work had come to an end, more equality was not financeable, religious and other a-rational beliefs had risen up again, the state systematically failed, and nationalism was rising up again. Liberalism would be the proper response, i.e. the promise of self-determination, individual responsibility, freedom of movement, and so on. In hindsight, we know that neoliberal pundits, particularly mainstream economists, transformed these vague assumptions and visions into the hardcore ideology of unfettered markets, in particular deregulated labour and capital markets.