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Why has Europe’s centre-left failed to respond to the crisis of neoliberalism in Europe? Rather than opening up a moment in political time for the centre-left to puncture the dominance of neoliberalism, the multitude of crises in Europe since 2008 have consolidated its difficulties and contributed to the rise of radical and populist alternatives.
Divided They Fell examines the failures of mainstream politics, and in particular the inability of the centre-left to respond to the global financial crisis more effectively. By exploring the cases of the UK Labour Party and France’s Parti Socialiste, the book investigates the role of, and interplay between, institutional intra-party dynamics, the parties’ ideational landscapes and the wider political economy in shaping their responses to the crisis.
Important reputational, ideational and strategic path dependencies in both parties, it is shown, constrained the flow of fresh ideas and entrenched their internal organizational divisions, leaving them unable to offer an effective post-neoliberal economic alternative. Ultimately, this fractured the parties and sparked a crisis of centre-left identity that opened the door to emergent alternative parties and movements in both cases.
Divided They Fell helps to diagnose what has gone wrong for the centre-left in Europe and forces us to consider whether such parties are, in the context of new and emerging crises, still fit for purpose.
A truly fabulous book on a supremely important topic. It is both prescient and timely, on the one hand, and yet timeless and long-lasting in its implications, on the other. Required reading for all those who have turned intuitively to the centre-left for their political inspiration and been so sadly disappointed – and for all those struggling to make sense of that disappointment and the failure it represents.
Introduction
1. Neoliberal convergence and the politics of austerity: is there still space for the centre-left?
2. Struggling to win: centre-left electoral decline and the strategic dilemma of the Third Way
3. Developing a strategy: the internal dynamics of the centre-left’s response to the crisis of neoliberalism
4. Delivering the strategy: how the centre-left sought to communicate a response to the crisis of neoliberalism
5. Stagnation, failure and fragmentation: the rise of the radical left
6. Post-pandemic politics: how are the centre-left rebuilding?
Conclusion
Appendix: list of interviewees and interview location