Concluding Essay: The Power of Politics

Abstract

In his broad assessment of social democracy in Europe since 1945, the Greek political scientist Gerassimos Moschonas argues that the time-honoured ambition of harnessing the market economy is no longer possible to achieve. According to Moschonas, social democratic parties and trade unions alike are held captive by ideological tenets and structural constraints. Globalization in particular, as reproduced by the diffusion of neoliberal ideas through various international organizations, has sharply reduced the possibility for policies that deviate from the norm. A situation has thus emerged where the desire for social justice can no longer be articulated in concrete policies. It is this which more than anything else has led the social democratic movement into an identity crisis, one that, again according to Moschonas, is likely to continue indefinitely.¹