"Social Democrats Choose Europe: Comparing the European Policies of the British Labour and French Socialist Parties"

McDowell, Manfred and Hudson, William E. (1991) "Social Democrats Choose Europe: Comparing the European Policies of the British Labour and French Socialist Parties". In: UNSPECIFIED, Fairfax, Virginia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

A striking feature of the "1992" process has been the embrace of the Single Market by left-wing parties previousiy hostile to the European Community's integrationist initiatives. Comparing the cases of the British Labour and French Social 1st parties, the paper suggests a common strategic calculation arising from the defeat of the left- Keynesian responses to the crises of the 1970s. Faced with refusal of private capital, both domestically and internationally, to adjust market strategies to "national" priorities, social democrats, following the dictates of electoral advantage, retreated toward the center, a shift facilitated by a pro-European policy. Support for greater economic and manetary union has offered party leaderships, which have abandoned the left's traditional insistence on a positive link between social equity and economic efficiency, a modernizing image, while at the same time diminishing domestic political accountability for policy choices unpopular with their labor and public-sector constituencies.

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