The Retreat of Social Democracy (Political Analysis)

This book examines policy and program in the key social democratic parties of Britain, France, Germany and Sweden since the 1970s and seeks to situate change in the context of capitalist restructuring. It examines mass unemployment, faltering economic performance, rising inflation and strain on welfare states. Callaghan shows how the radical Left within social democracy initially responded to the unfolding crisis of the post-war order and why it was ultimately defeated. Callaghan's analysis also reveals the extent of the divergence between British Labour's subsequent ideaological evolution and theat of its sister parties in continental Europe.