The crisis of the left policy

Occupation: Leading Researcher
Affiliation: Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO)
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow

Journal name

Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia

Edition

Volume 62 Issue 9

Pages

26-35

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the main aspects of the left sector evolution in the political space of

Western countries. Having arisen during the French Revolution of the 18th century, the division of political

space into the left and the right spilled over to all countries of Europe and America. However, this division

changed significantly hereafter under the influence of complicated social processes and turbulent political

events. During the 20th century, radical left forces, primarily the Communists, have sustained a variety of

defeats trying to eliminate the capitalist system. Social-Democratic parties have evolved from revolutionary

positions to the increasingly moderate reformism. Consequently, in the Western Europe, the left forces have

yielded the pas to center-left, social-reformist parties, the two-party (two-coalition) system has emerged

where center-left and center-right replaced each other in power. In Latin America, the left forces survived,

but even when they took power, they were bound to conduct a center-left policy. Yet the development

of globalization in neo-liberal style, while intensifying the economic competition, greatly hampered the

implementation of such policy. The time coincidence of the left and center-left parties’ crushing defeats in

most of the Western countries is not occasional, it witnesses the crisis in their course. Lately, the situation

has been dramatized significantly by emergence of influential populist parties and movements in Europe,

which put the previous division into question. The leftist crisis has violated the regular rotation of political

forces in power and created a background for essential changes in political course and maybe also for

weakening of stability of political institutions. This situation could only be altered by the change of the

present, mostly neo-liberal character of globalization processes, which is highly unlikely.

Keywords

left forces, Western Europe, Latin America, communists, social-democrats, democratic socialism, reformism, left center, rotation, globalization, T. Blair.

Received

03.10.2018

Publication date

03.10.2018

Number of characters

667

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GOST	Kholodkovskii K. The crisis of the left policy // Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia – 2018. – V. 62. – Issue 9 C. 26-35 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/meimo/s207987840000528-9-2-en (circulation date: 20.04.2024).
MLA	Kholodkovskii, Kirill G "The crisis of the left policy." Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia 62.9 (2018):26-35.
APA	Kholodkovskii K. (2018). The crisis of the left policy. Mirovaia ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniia 62(9), pp.26-35

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