{"id":14091,"date":"2012-02-13T09:08:10","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T09:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=14091"},"modified":"2012-02-10T13:10:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:10:19","slug":"social-democracy-and-europes-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/02\/13\/social-democracy-and-europes-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND EUROPE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S CRISIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please come to an event\u00a0with the above title in Thursday 16 February 2012, 6p.m., room B33,\u00a0Birkbeck College, Malet Street<\/a>, London\u00a0WC1E 7HX<\/a><\/p>\n

Registration is free but required.\u00a0You can register\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The financial\u00a0crisis, the subsequent economic\u00a0crisis\u00a0and the\u00a0crisis\u00a0in the Eurozone have multiple facets that highlight and, in some respects, exacerbate\u00a0social\u00a0democracy\u2019s malaise. They are crises of values, programmatic beliefs, policies, leadership and institutions. They raise in the most pressing manner the issue of the real contemporary meaning of reformism, internationalism and solidarity, the relationship between the political sphere and the economic sphere, the boundary between the public and the private, the appropriate level(s) of action (national, European, global), and the search for leadership and effective institutions. However, the ongoing\u00a0crisis\u00a0is above all a\u00a0crisis\u00a0of neo-liberalism and not enough (as well as a particular kind) of Europe. Yet, it was the Centre-Right and its allies that won the 2009 European elections. Crucially, they did so on the basis of a theme and slogan with clear\u00a0social\u00a0democratic overtones: to help create \u201cl\u2019Europe qui prot\u00c3\u00a8ge<\/a><\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

What lessons have\u00a0Europe\u2019s\u00a0social\u00a0democrats drawn from this ongoing\u00a0crisisand, above all, how would they deal with it? What are their proposals and their strategies in that respect? How do they propose to meet the challenge of building the broad alliance that would enable them to return to power and what is to be done if they succeed? The purpose of this event is to bring together speakers from a range of spheres and offer them a chance to begin to sketch out current\u00a0social\u00a0democratic thinking at both the national and the European level on the\u00a0crisis\u00a0in the Eurozone and the associated ensemble of issues, including the regulation of financial services and the demand for the explicit politicization of the European Union. Is more integration the answer and if so, what\u00a0kind of Europe<\/em>\u00a0should emerge from this\u00a0crisis? How can democratic politics be brought to bear on unfettered markets and what is the appropriate level of action?<\/p>\n

Chair:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Dr Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos<\/a>\u00a0(Birkbeck)<\/p>\n

Speakers:<\/p>\n