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The Party of European Socialists: Networking Europe's Social Democrats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

Robert Ladrech
Robert Ladrech
Affiliation:
University of Keele
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Extract

Most discussions regarding the fate of the democratic left in Europe focus on individual parties in national political systems. Beyond this level, individual political figures have strode across the (West) European stage symbolizing the principles and values of social democracy; one thinks, for example, of Willy Brandt or Olaf Palme. By and large, though, when the health of the democratic left is assessed, it is done so by counting the number of parties in European governments. This “counting game” does not evaluate the ideological attraction of these parties, but rests solely on the outcomes of competitive elections, which does not necessarily attest to the popularity of the winning party, and in many cases reflects on the deeds of the incumbent party. Nevertheless, the main point is that measuring the prospects for the democratic left has always implied a focus on the individual national political system. At the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it is now possible to speak of an emerging European left, that is, a political presence representing a common set of issue preferences actively trying to influence the decision-making process of the European Union. One of the organizational nodes of this political presence is the Party of European Socialists (PES). This essay aims to explore the PES—its background, organizational development, and capability to influence the challenges to social democracy. The attempt to form a European-level social democracy represents one of the possible futures for the democratic left in Europe. This is because the intensity of the European integration process has permeated so many areas of national policymaking. Indeed, “more so than at any point in history the fate of social democracy and European integration have become interlinked.”

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 15 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The Future of the Democratic Left in Industrial Democracies , January 2003 , pp. 113 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2003

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References

Notes

1. In this essay, “democratic left” will refer to social democratic parties, whether labeled socialist, Labour, or social democrat.

2. Notermans, Ton, “Introduction,” in Notermans, Ton, ed., Social Democracy and Monetary Union (New York, 2001), 1.Google Scholar

3. Silone, Ignazio, quoted in Kevin Featherstone, Socialist Parties and European Integration (Manchester, 1988), 14.Google Scholar

4. See Pierson, Christopher, Hard Choices: Social Democracy in the Twenty-first Century (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar, for a particularly perceptive discussion of the actual practice and identity of contemporary social democracy.

5. The PES has produced, available on its Web site, A History of the PES: 1957–1994, by Simon Hix. See <www.eurosocialists.org/upload/publications/37EN19_en.pdf>

6. This is not to say that the SI did not have working parties or did not take stands on political issues. The point being that the SI represented too general a level of interaction to generate a density of interaction needed to produce an influential presence on the international stage.

7. See the special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999), entitled “The Social Construction of Europe.”Google Scholar

8. See Dinan, Desmond, Ever Closer Union: An Introduction to European Integration (Boulder, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. See Ladrech, Robert, Social Democracy and the Challenge of European Union (Boulder, 2000).Google Scholar

10. See also Corbett, Richard, The European Parliament's Role in Closer EU Integration (Basingstoke, 2001)Google Scholar, and Raunio, Tapio and Hix, Simon, “Backbenchers Learn to Fight Back: European Integration and Parliamentary Government,” West European Politics 23 (2001): 142–168CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. On the organizational innovations of the PES, see Hix, Simon, “The Party of European Socialists,” in Ladrech, Robert and Marlière, Philippe, eds., Social Democratic Parties in the European Union: History, Organization, Policies (London, 1999).Google Scholar

12. It ought to be noted that the main competitor on the European stage, the Christian Democrat and conservative European People's Party (EPP), has also instituted party leaders summits.

13. See also Beetham, David and Lord, Christopher, Legitimacy and the European Union (New York, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Greven, Michael Th. and Pauly, Louis, eds., Democracy Beyond the State? The European Dilemma and the Emerging Global Order (Lanham, Md., 2000).Google Scholar

14. It has even been suggested that European integration “strengthens” the national executive vis-à-vis other domestic actors and institutions. See Andrew Moravscik, “Why the European Community Strengthens the State: Domestic Politics and International Cooperation,” Harvard University Center for European Studies Working Paper no. 52, 1994.

15. Regarding social democratic internalization of neoliberal understandings of globalization, see Hay, Colin, “Globalization, Social Democracy, and the Persistence of Partisan Politics: A Commentary on Garrett,” Revue of International Political Economy 7, no. 1: 138–152CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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19. Apart from Luxembourg, all the other member states had varying distances to go in order to complete the EMU “convergence criteria” for membership. These criteria included bringing budget deficits down, cutting national debt, and lowering interest rates. See Featherstone, Kevin, “The Political Dynamics of Economic and Monetary Union,” in Cram, Laura et al. , eds., Developments in the European Union (London, 1999), 311–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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22. Christine U. Arnold and David R. Cameron, “Why the EU Developed the European Employment Strategy: Unemployment, Public Opinion, and Member State Preferences,” paper presented at the American Political Science Association Meeting, San Francisco, 30 August–2 September 2001, 3.

23. Leibfried, Stephan and Pierson, Paul, “Social Policy: Left to Courts and Markets?” in Wallace, Helen and Wallace, William, eds., Policy-Making in the European Union, 4th ed. (Oxford, 2000), 273.Google Scholar

24. Mazey, “European Integration,” European Union, 44.

25. Arnold and Cameron, “Why the EU Developed the European Employment Strategy,” 22. See also Pollack, Mark, “A Blairite Treaty: Neo-Liberalism and Regulated Capitalism in the Treaty of Amsterdam,” in Neunreither, Karlheinz and Wiener, Antje, eds., European Integration After Amsterdam: Institutional Dynamics and Prospects for Democracy (Oxford, 2000).Google Scholar

26. See chapter 6 in Ladrech, Social Democracy and the Challenge of European Union.

27. Luxembourg: Office of Official Publications, 1994. See also Ross, George, Jacques Delors and European Integration (Oxford, 1995).Google Scholar

28. Ladrech, Social Democracy and the Challenge of European Union, 12.

29. Johansson, Karl Magnus, “Tracing the Employment Title in the Amsterdam Treaty: Uncovering Transnational Coalitions,” Journal of European Public Policy 6 (1999): 85–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the sequence of summits leading to Amsterdam in which employment was raised, see Arnold and Cameron, “Why the EU Developed the European Employment Strategy,” 5–11.

30. Peters, Guy, “Agenda-setting in the European Union,” in Richardson, Jeremy, ed., European Union: Power and Policy-making (London, 1996), 67.Google Scholar

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32. Butler, Anthony, Transformative Politics: The Future of Socialism in Western Europe (Basingstoke, 1995), 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. See the various chapters in Cuperus, René, Duffek, Karl, and Kandel, Johannes, eds., Multiple Third Ways: European Social Democracy Facing the Twin Revolution of Globalisation and the Knowledge Society (Amsterdam, 2001).Google Scholar

34. Hooghe, Liesbet and Marks, Gary, “The Making of a Polity: The Struggle over European Integration,” in Kitschelt, Herbert et al. , eds., Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism (Cambridge, 1999).Google Scholar

35. Notermans, Social Democracy and Monetary Union, 269.

36. Ladrech, Social Democracy and the Challenge of European Union, 129.

37. In addition to being from countries in which accession negotiations are taking place, parties must also have been evaluated by the PES as suitable in terms of democratic organization and policy orientation to qualify for associate status within the PES.