Every generation develops its own New Left. This is a natural process as proponents struggle to come to grips with new challenges and old failures. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Brazil
Interview with Richard Sandbrook on Reinventing the Left
Ali Burak Guven (ABG): What was your motivation for writing Reinventing the Left?
To be honest, I never set out to write such an ambitious book. I originally conceived the project as a critique of neoliberal development doctrine. But one thing led to another, and my inclination to move beyond critique to the central question of “what might be done” came to the fore. This, to my mind, raised the issue of the viability and promise of the democratic left. Continue reading
The Left’s Central Dilemma
Sometimes it appears that the democratic left is engaged in the labour of Sisyphus. Sisyphus, according to the Greek myth, was condemned by the gods to spend eternity in an utterly futile task: to push a boulder to the top of a hill, only to see it roll down to the bottom each time. Leaders of the left have their own peculiar burden to shoulder. When progressive parties pursue a moderate strategy of accommodation with capitalism, they may achieve egalitarian gains but rarely enough to satisfy their militant followers. But if they pursue a more confrontational stance vis-à-vis inherited structures of privilege and power, they risk instigating an economic crisis that may usher in a crushing political crisis as well. This pattern is evident in the Global South, the focus of this post, but it probably applies also to the Global North. Continue reading
Neoliberal Globalization: Are the Times a-Changin’?
Neoliberalglobalization since the late 1970s has restricted the policy autonomy of national states through a variety of pressures that “discipline” governments implementing measures deemed hostile to free markets. Yet the world is changing fast and the rise of China in particular is shifting the global power balance. Strangely, however, remarkably little has changed in the global order beyond some reshuffling of the dominant players and somewhat greater national independence in decision making. This argument is made at length in Civilizing Globalization, which I recently co-edited with Ali Burak Guven. Continue reading
Can Moderate Social Democracy be Progressive? A View from the Global South
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Progressive movements divide into two types. On the one hand, there are leftist parties with a moderate strategy that aim, or at least resign themselves, to implement redistributive programs with the acquiescence of the elites. On the other hand, we find parties that believe that only unrelenting confrontation of existing power structures and inherited privilege will bring the desired results. The division between class compromise and class struggle is fundamental. Continue reading
Climate Change and the Left in the Global South
Can the #Left in the Global South mitigate climate change any better than the neoliberals? A lot rides on the answer because the trends in this neoliberal era are particularly dire in the tropics. In many countries, populations have doubled in less than 30 years. Meanwhile, rising incomes have vastly expanded the level of consumption of national populations. When global warming is added to this equation, various unfortunate consequences follow. Continue reading