David J. Bailey - The Political Economy of European Social Democracy: A Critical Realist Approach

For many years European social democrats have aspired to create a Social Europe to compensate for the ascendance of an international neoliberal consensus. Despite the promises of European integration, however, the European Union has thus far been largely a market-building project. EU-level market-correcting policies have either been curtailed by national opposition (such as the EU Social Chapter) or steered in a market-friendly direction (such as the Lisbon Strategy).

This book argues that rather than presenting an opportunity for European social democrats, the European Union instead provides the appearance of an opportunity, which ensures that new social democratic party initiatives are complicit with the neoliberal international political economy. Included as part of this examination are case studies from the UK, France, Sweden, Spain, Italy and the transnational Party of European Socialists.

Providing a theoretically innovative explanation for the new social democratic turn to Europe, this book will be of interest to postgraduate students and academics focusing on social democratic parties.

David J. Bailey completed his PhD at the London School of Economics, and is currently lecturer in political science at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on social democratic parties and European integration. He has published articles in the Journal of Common Market Studies, and Comparative European Politics.

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First published 2009
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2009 David J. Bailey

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ISBN 0-203-86766-1 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10: 0-415-46213-4 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-86766-1 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-46213-6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-86766-2 (ebk)

This book is the product of a long research project that began with my PhD thesis. As a result, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to a number of people who helped me throughout this process. My PhD supervisors, Simon Hix and Eiko Thielemann, both provided me with invaluable advice, assistance and support for the duration of my PhD studies, often spotting holes in my argument and requiring me to either defend, remove or fill those holes. In the early stages of the thesis Eiko Thielemann provided me with both extremely useful advice on how to actually go about doing a PhD, and the right amount of steering to make sure I could work out for myself what that meant in practice without getting completely lost in the process. During the later stages of writing the thesis Simon Hix consistently and constructively identified weaknesses in my argument, the correction of which, I hope, are reflected in the argument as it now appears in this book. I am also grateful for a series of conversations with a fellow PhD student, Sara Motta, who introduced me to a number of new ideas that I would otherwise not have considered and which ended up having a significant impact upon my own intellectual development. I also wish to acknowledge the extremely detailed and constructive comments of my PhD examiners, Colin Hay and Philippe Marlire, both of whom, based on a very close reading of the text, provided me with positive feedback and very useful advice on how to improve the viability of the argument made herein, for which I am extremely grateful. I am also grateful to the Party of European Socialists for granting me access to their archives, providing me with the opportunity to work in and observe their office in Brussels, and to the individuals who took part in my interviews during my field research in late 2002. I was also fortunate enough to gain a small research grant from the British Academy (SG-48128), which allowed me to travel to each of the non-UK countries that form case studies in the present book, to interview leading political actors in each case. I am extremely grateful to the interviewees in each country, the British Academy, and the assistance I received from Magalie Bourblanc, Claudio Corradetti, Borja Lasheras, and Tove Linden. For reading and critically commenting in depth on a number of earlier drafts of this work, I am grateful to Abby Innes, Sebastian Balfour, Bob Hancke, the students who attended GV502 European Politics and Policy, and the anonymous Routledge reviewer. I also acknowledge ESRC award R42200034145. I am also grateful for the chance to discuss some of the claims of the book with Luis Cabrera, who was particularly insightful in pointing me towards the way someone more optimistic about the prospects of European integration might engage with the argument. I am absolutely indebted to Saori Shibata, without whose constant and unwavering support this book is one of many things I would never otherwise have achieved. Finally, I dedicate the book to my parents, who did so much to provide me with the initial conditions necessary to engender an enjoyment of study, for which I will always be grateful.

AES Alternative Economic Strategy

AEU Amalgamated Engineering Union

AMS National Labour Market Board

BLP British Labour Party

CAP Common Agricultural Policy