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(Not much has changed since 1980.)
New Left Review I/122, July-August 1980
Social Democracy as a Historical Phenomenon
by Adam Przeworski
Not to repeat past mistakes: the sudden resurgence of a sympathetic
interest in Social Democracy is a response to the urgent need to draw
lessons from the history of the socialist movement. After several
decades of analyses worthy of an ostrich, some rudimentary facts are
finally being admitted. Social Democracy has been the prevalent manner
of organization of workers under capitalism. Reformist parties have
enjoyed the support of workers. Perhaps even more: for better or worse,
Social Democracy is the only political force of the Left that can
demonstrate an extensive record of reforms in favour of the workers. Any
movement that seeks to transform historical conditions operates under
these very conditions. The movement for socialism develops within
capitalism and faces definite choices that arise from this very
organization of society. These choices have been threefold: (1) whether
to seek the advancement of socialism through the political institutions
of the capitalist society or to confront the bourgeoisie directly,
without any mediation; (2) whether to seek the agent of socialist
transformation exclusively in the working class or to rely on multi- and
even supra-class support; and (3) whether to seek improvements, reforms,
within the confines of capitalism or to dedicate all efforts and
energies to its complete transformation.
Social democrats choose to participate, to seek supra-class alliances,
and to struggle for reforms. Yet these decisions are not independent of
each other. What is crucial to understand is the development of social
democracy as a process: the manner in which the response to any one of
these alternatives opens and closes the subsequent choices. For it may
be that any movement that chooses to participate in bourgeois
institutions, and specifically in elections, must seek support for
socialist transformation beyond the working class and must struggle for
all improvements that are possible in the short run without regard for
ultimate consequences. Are the decisions to participate and the strategy
of supra-class appeal inextricably connected? Is the orientation toward
immediate reforms a necessary consequence of broadening the class base?
Is an electoral party that would be based exclusively on working class
support and dedicated exclusively to ultimate goals even possible? These
are the kinds of questions that need to be answered if we are to draw
lessons from the social democratic experience. What we need to know is
the logic of choices faced by any movement for socialism within
capitalist society: the historical possibilities that are opened and
closed as each choice is made.
(behind a paywall)
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