Friday, May 19, 2006

Social democracy as a principle

“Social democracy,” as an ideology, as a phenomenon, has certainly seen its more popular days. The post-Cold War-driven shift to the center, the “Third Way” as it has been called (though many things have been referred to by that moniker), has altered the concept in many ways, although the core values remain the same.

Social democracy, at its beginning, referred to a peaceful Marxist transition from capitalism to socialism via the democratic route (“reformism”). It was a broad enough concept at the beginning of the century that Lenin’s party was called the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. After the Russian Revolution, the historic socialist-communist split led to the foundation of explicitly Communist revolutionary, pro-Soviet parties, and the remaining “socialist” parties gradually drifted rightward, though the balance between the socialist and communist parties differed in various countries.

Today, we are seeing the second transition of social democracy. Social democrats in Europe have been admitting officially what they had already conceded privately—that socialism is not the end goal, that a “tamed capitalism” and a mixed economy are the goals of social democracy. Liberty, equality and solidarity remain the principles of social democracy, but the movement’s concept of and approach to pragmatism and reality has been altered substantially.

As with any other ideology, the effect and reality of social democracy in government is correlated to the environment in which the individual party finds itself. The general trend towards moderation (though not without disputes) in SD parties has continued, but moderation is a relative term depending on the country (with SD parties in Scandinavia, for instance, still defending their traditional welfare state).

Classical liberals may want to claim for themselves the mantle of historic pragmatism. But liberalism has its not-so-proud moments, its regressive alliances over the years, not to mention its (classical) refusal to admit the value of public goods above and beyond the basic provision of markets.

Social democracy differs from liberalism in more than one way. Whereas liberalism is individualism at its pinnacle, adopting the principle of “individual gains” and “rationality” and accrediting it as the natural order of things, social democracy is idealistic, change-oriented and yet simultaneously pragmatic. Social democracy recognizes the need for substantial public goods and the maintenance of the collective, the commons, in ways other than simply the sustenance of clearly visible economic gains via the market. Social democrats believe that health care, quality education, employment, a quality environment, and other public goods are crucial to the survival of the market, and are positive not just as mechanisms for increasing productivity, but in creating a society that can support all of its citizens and maintain its long-term legitimacy.

This implies the most vital thread of social democracy: social democracy can be a way of living, not just a political ideology. Liberalism fails as a way of living: a belief that the individual gain will always be the major consideration is self-fulfilling. Pragmatic social democracy believes that the individual gain and the collective gain are oftentimes competing principles, which must be reconciled as best as possible, but that we must always strive towards an ideal, where we can see equality of outcomes produced across society.

None of what I write here is new, of course, but hopefully it puts my opinions into context.

"These innocent people"

"[Palestinians] are the victims of their own extremist, fundamentalist, religious, inflexible and unyielding leadership, and we will do everything in our power to help these innocent people." --Ehud Olmert, quoted in Ha'aretz, 19 May 2006

How, exactly, does Israel propose to help the innocent Palestinians, who apparently chose Hamas to lead them without realizing the character of the organization, and apparently before earlier this year were the victims of something else. Exactly what they were the victims of (previously) isn't specified. Certainly not Israel, or the settler movement, of course. It really is too bad that all these innocent people are around in the Middle East and the only reason there is no peace is the intransigent, recently elected Palestinian leadership.

I'm sure that Ehud Olmert will do everything he can to help the Palestinians. Energy payments, essential goods out of the Palestinians' money that he won't give them? That will resolve the situation.

And Israel will continue to be the good guy, and the gentle father of the Palestinians. Sorry... Palestinians?... the Arabs of Eretz Israel. It's too bad about their leadership.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Countries that don't back terrorism

We're restoring diplomatic relations with Libya? Great!

Maybe they have a veteran revolutionary leader who is a sometimes-erratic dictator and has financed armed movements from time to time... whose domestic policies we don't entirely agree with... but that's no reason to punish their people.

The guy on the left, that's their leader, isn't it?



Oh wait, the guy I'm thinking of doesn't have the best human development in Latin America? My bad.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Of intellectual creativity, and moral responsibility

Two very different fields for comment today...

First is an interesting article in the New York Times about French universities from a couple of days ago. To summarize briefly, French universities are in a fairly poor state because nobody pays tuition, and spots are guaranteed (on a geographical basis) to those students who pass their baccalaureate. The article tends to reflect what other publications (such as The Economist) regularly say about European education, although should this article be accurate, it would suggest that French universities are in a worse state than elsewhere on the continent.

This story provides an interesting insight into the self-perpetuation of institutional rules. The agreement in the 1960s of the de Gaulle government to give almost-free university education to anyone has led to the creation and entrenchment of a norm--namely, that it is everyone's right to get a free university education, regardless of the effects of such right on society.

University education is absolutely vital, and of course it is only right that those without the appropriate means be assisted, with public funds, in order that society progress toward equality of opportunity and outcomes. But when there is no effort required to obtain that education, and when the "right" to education for all leads to the crumbling of its credibility and capacities, then it clearly becomes a hindrance to society.

I wrote in an earlier blog entry about my support for a high-tuition, high-aid model, even in pubilc universities such as the one I attend. I will echo that sentiment again here. It is that model, as well as substantial public and private R&D investment, that has allowed American universities to be the pioneering research bodies and competitive institutions they are today.


Curing cancer?

Tonight I had the chance, for the third successive year, to drop by Relay for Life, a charity benefit for the American Cancer Society. R4L has been one of the most popular fundraising events for any cause that I've seen at the university, and certainly the money donated for cancer research is for a good cause.

Yet it is events like R4L which sometimes give me pause to think about our good fortune and a rather chronic, media and money-driven incorrect focus of charity (and the haphazard allocation of private donations versus the potential for a more coherent public policy). Americans are lucky to have so many people with cancer--and in saying so, I mean on a relative basis: Africans would love to have the chance to live long enough to have the same rate of death from cancer that we do. Instead, they die of malaria, AIDS or preventable diseases, ignored due to a lack of relatively small amounts of funds.

How many Americans would think about malaria as an important issue? Yet the fight against malaria has been referred to as the most effective use of money possible in terms of saving human lives. It's easy: bed nets, medications. The same is true of other easily preventable diseases which ravage African populations.

It is unfair to say that nobody has noticed: in particular, the Gates Foundation has made a significant donation. But there are plenty of Americans willing to buy the "stop the genocide in Darfur" T-shirts, sure... but how many of them know where Sierra Leone or Liberia are? Or know anything about the Democratic Republic of the Congo? How many care? Those in Darfur can thank the media for, at least, shining the spotlight on one part of the continent.