Critique internationale - Content
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[Market-Friendly Social Democracy]
Under the leadership of “modernizers”, have social democratic parties renounced the socialist project of their predecessors? While it is true that these parties have been introducing liberal reforms for over a century, the relative continuity of their positions must not be under-estimated. The analysis of the political platforms of Labour and the Swedish Social-Democratic Party (SAP) from 1966 to 1990 is in this respect revealing: it shows that shared terms like “economic planning”, for example, can be the object of multiple and diverse uses depending on the political tendencies of the moment. Though these parties very early on chose to put their hopes in the welfare state, party leaderships have in fact always been convinced that a prosperous market economy and competitive national industries were the only ways to finance it. This general acceptance of the market and the limits it places on public action subsequently prepared the way for the “modernizing” turn. One should thus not speak of a “revisionist” break with the past.
[Social Democracy and Labour Market Policy in the 21st Century]
Over the course of the past ten years, the United Kingdom and Germany have reduced the level of income protection paid to unemployed persons (“passive” programs) and shifted the internal balance of active labour market programs from skill enhancement towards a ‘work first’ and basic security model. These developments apply to all unemployed persons in the United Kingdom but are limited to the long-term unemployed in Germany. Though they are common to both countries, the general drift of these New Labour market policies has not prevented certain national characteristics from being preserved. Indeed, by and large, the German policy remains closer to social democratic conceptions than does its British counterpart. The generosity of benefits, the relative importance of social insurance measures compared to social assistance and the sums devoted to activation and training programs are all evidence of this.
[New Labour in Search of “the Best Possible Relation between Individuals, Markets and Government”]
New Labour rejected both the big state of the “old left” and the minimal state of the “new right” in favour of “the enabling state”. According to Tony Blair, the policy pursued by the government concerning “the issue of healthy living” and, more particularly, its choices in the area of the fight against obesity and alcoholism supplied a “prime illustration” of this third model. Three instruments were privileged: industrial self-policing, partnerships with industry and public information campaigns. And yet, while New Labour flattered itself for having only chosen solutions “that work”, all scholarly studies of the issue showed that these were the least effective instruments. This paradox is in particular explained by the priority placed on good relations with the economic world, “the founding principle of New Labour” (Tony Blair), and by the politician’s fear of being accused of wanting to establish a “nanny state”.
[The Challenges of Universality: The Local Government of Welfare in Sweden and Norway]
This article explores a relatively neglected yet very important dimension of the social-democratic regimes of Northern Europe and their recent transformations. While being often cast as examples of homogeneous welfare state systems, these regimes have actually relied on powerful local governments that have been responsible for the managing most social services. Since the late 1980s, there has been a great deal of experimentation aiming at granting more autonomy to the local levels and it has opened the door for increasing differentiation of social policies in countries otherwise accustomed to a universalist and egalitarian framework. From the cases of Sweden and Norway, the article discusses the transformation of local “welfare states” and shows that both countries responded differently to a set of common stimuli. In fact, if Sweden carried on and intensified local experimentation, mixing public and private solutions under various guises, Norway has seen a return of the state and further decentralization has been postponed. This research documents the changes that have taken place and stresses the importance of studying the complex modes of territorial social regulation.
[Nestor Kirchner: From the “Powerless” President to the “Hegemonic Leader”]
Coming four years after that of her husband, Cristina Kirchner’s December 2007 election victory served as confirmation of “Kirchnerist” domination of the Argentine political scene. Yet the history of Nestor Kirchner’s rise to power in 2003 shows that support for him was extremely fragile and unstable, particularly within the Peronist party with which he identified. How is one thus to understand this reconfiguration of the Argentine political game? An examination of the public policies pursued by Nestor Kirchner’s government in the first months after he came to power allows one to respond to this question. In particular, the restoration of a capacity for action partly depended on winning over the political and institutional groups interested in the redistribution of the clientelist resources attached to Nestor Kirchner’s presidential function.
[Lifting the Arms Embargo on China?]
From 2003 to 2005, French and German diplomats, in conjunction with the British diplomatic corps, made extensive efforts to lift the 1989 arms embargo imposed on the People’s Republic of China by the European Union. As a result, they gradually succeeded in clearing the way for a timid consensus within European bodies, leading many analysts to predict that the embargo would be lifted in the course of 2005. How is one thus to explain the fact that, in the space of a few months, this seemingly inevitable measure had disappeared from the European Union’s calendar without protest from the nations that had most strongly supported it? Should this be seen as a victory of American opposition? Or was it rather the expression of well thought-out national interests?
[The Neoconservative Presence in Spain: The End of Influence?]
Neoconservatism appears to be a specifically American movement. Yet, in Spain, a group with ties to the main opposition party, the Partido Popular, claims membership in this ideological current. The mainspring of the influence enjoyed by the GEES (Grupo de estudios estratégicos) has been the convergence of its positions in the area of foreign policy with the stances taken by the Spanish right, particularly under José Maria Aznar’s government from 1996 to 2004. The Spanish government’s reaction to the September 11th, 2001 attacks and its subsequent support for military intervention in Iraq were the highpoints of this special relationship. After the right returned to the opposition, Spanish neoconservatives contributed to maintaining ideological confrontation with the ruling Socialist Party but the recent adoption of a more moderate attitude by the leadership of the Partido Popular threatens to permanently marginalize them on the Spanish political scene.
Comprendre la circulation internationale des solutions d’action publique : panorama des policy transfer studies
Jay Rowell, Le totalitarisme au concret : les politiques du logement en RDA, Paris, Économica, 2006, 339 pages.
Magali Gravie, Good Bye Honecker ! Identité et loyauté dans les administrations est-allemandes (1990-1999), Paris, Les Presses de Sciences Po, 2008, 283 pages.
Heinrich Best, Heinz Mestrup (Hrsg.), Die Ersten und Zweiten Sekretäre der SED. Machtstrukturen und Herrschaftspraxis in den thüringischen Bezirken der DDR, Weimar, Hain Verlag, 2003, 824 pages.
Mario Niemann, Die Sekretäre der SED-Bezirksleitungen, 1952-1989, Paderborn, Schoeningh Ferdinand Gmbh, 2007, 446 pages.
