The Americanization of the European Left

Bibliographic Data

ID7879211
AuthorsSeymour Martin Lipset (corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume12
Issue2
Pages74-87
Publication date2001-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of democracy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-5736 • E-ISSN: 1086-3214
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jod.2001.0031
OpenAlexW2020609063
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited8

In a book published in 1998, a distinguished sociologist asserted, "No one any longer has any alternatives to capitalism--the arguments that remain concern how far and in what ways capitalism should be governed and regulated." What makes these words especially noteworthy is that the man who wrote them, Anthony Giddens, was also widely known as the intellectual guru to British prime minister and Labour Party leader Tony Blair. By embracing "The Third Way" (the title of Giddens's book), explicitly understood as a middle path that avoided both the anticapitalism of the left and the conservatism of the right, Blair helped bring to an end a century-long period in which the European left had been dominated by socialists. By so doing, he and his counterparts on the continent have also furthered the process of making political party divisions in Europe resemble more closely those of the United States, where socialism never gained a serious foothold

Americanization · Capitalism · Communism · Conservatism · Economic history · New Left · Period (music · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · History · Law · Philosophy · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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