On the political right in Europe: facing the challenges of social democracy

[Paper Keywords] European left-wing and right wing politics of social democracy
[Abstract] Europe is the cradle of social democracy and the home base. After the Cold War, socialism in the world situation being at a low ebb, the European Social Democrats have 90 years in the 20th century the "third way" as a symbol to achieve a certain level of "magic back." However, the 21st century, the European Political arena "right" phenomenon continues to deepen and challenges facing social democracy. This phenomenon and the current international Political and Economic environment and European specific Political, Economic, cultural and other factors closely related to the recent European politics is bound to have a major impact movements.

In Europe, social democracy as an important Political force and the main schools of thought, has played a pivotal role. The Second World War, Social Democratic Party in many developed capitalist countries of Europe to achieve a single ruling party or coalition, they are both inside and outside Parliament to fight for the interests of working people were Zhuo _ effective activities and to promote a series of capitalist countries to develop policies conducive to labor, the capitalist governments of certain social policies in favor of a step forward in the direction the people of the community Democrats in Europe and therefore have broad social base. Drastic Change, the world at the moment into the trough of socialism, social democracy was also a great impact, but 90 years into the 20th century, the European Social Democrats have achieved a "Political innovation ", the name of the" new centrist "flag introduced a" third way "as a symbol of the reform policies are considered left-wing political forces in Europe, a major victory for recovery. But did not last long into the 21st century, the Social Democratic Party the policy was in trouble.

First, the challenges facing the European Social Democratic Party: lost again and again in political elections
Into the 2l century, the European political situation worsened, and the Social Democratic Party not only in the domestic political election defeat again, but the status in the EU institutions has also declined, this situation is reflected in the century, some European countries, the presidential and legislative elections .2001 May in the Italian national elections were held, the Italian forces in the party and other right-wing political parties of the Freedom House defeated by the Democratic Party and other left-wing-left Olive Tree alliance composed of parties came to power in September 2001 of Norway parliamentary elections, the ruling Labour Party received only 24,4% of the vote, setting the lowest since 1927, records of votes, the same year in November, the Danish Liberal Party, led by the opposition party groups to a greater advantage to win elections, and continuous power 8 years of Social Democratic Party won the election, only 29.1% of the vote, less than 6.8% the previous general election in May 2002 year, the French Socialist Party presidential election, or whether in the legislative elections that followed repeated defeat: the Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin in the presidential election's first round of the election Jibei eliminated, the Socialist Party in Parliament received only 138 seats, an overwhelming majority of traditional right-wing forces to victory, winning 393 seats, the situation of cohabitation in France came to an end. Similarly, in May 2032 the Dutch Parliament elections, the Netherlands Labour Party received only l5.1% of the vote, compared to 1998 decreased by 13.9 percentage points. in Germany in September The election of Social Democrats and Green Party coalition is composed of red and green all the way and danger, and finally the advantages of only 11 seats lucky winner.

Social Democratic Party's political weakness has not been reversed in recent years: in February 2005, the Danish government declared the election over, the former center-right ruling coalition of the Liberal and conservative parties won 71 seats and the smooth re-election, in which the Liberal Party 52 parliamentary seats remain the largest party status as the main opposition Social Democratic Party obtained only 47 seats, less than the last and I .2007 November 5, the Danish Parliament election results, right-wing parties won the election the third group, access to 179 Parliament seats to 94 seats, Rasmussen led the ruling right coalition government will continue to 4 years .2007 May, the French presidential elections, the Socialist candidate Royal lost the right-wing UMP candidate Sa Section Qi, once again defeated in the election. In Britain, the ruling Labour Party in June 2004 subject to the local municipal elections where the ruling party of British history, the worst defeat suffered by a loss of more than 460 seats, the vote dropped to third place, ranking after the two main opposition parties in May .2 OO6 again in local elections the Labour Party lost 319 seats, received only 26% of the low rate of .2008 in July to support the Labour Party defeat in local elections the situation continued to play, stability control and even lost 60 seats in the Scottish Parliament. And according to recent opinion polls showed Labour's support rate had fallen to 23%, is the worst time since 1943, the opposition Conservative Party support for the relative rate of 45% there . so difficult situation the Labour Party in next year's general election in perpetuity, precarious political situation. In the current 27 EU member states, individually or in combination with the ruling Social Democratic Party, Government only 10, and in some coalition government, the Social Democratic Party and is not dominant. Social Democratic Party politics not only in domestic politics lost the election defeat, and showed some of the major institutions in the EU political status has declined.

Although in the early centuries of Europe before a new round of political pull off, there are many scholars of the political future of the European Socialist Party did not quite optimistic on the forecast, but the past few years or so that the election results stunned many scholars, on "European politicians to bode", "social democratic model of the end", the "third way has failed," have generated controversy and doubts, in this, I believe that the political right in Europe in recent years is the emergence of the phenomenon deteriorating international Economic situation and the 9.11 incident and the political background of the specific international context of such a place, and indeed the rise of right-wing forces in Europe and around the world to bring a certain amount of political turmoil, but it does not make Europe the direction of substantive policy change occurs, lightly failure of social democracy model may be premature.

Second, the Causes of the European political arena right
Political right in Europe caused by the reasons are complex, sum up, mainly in the following areas:
(A) Globalization of extreme nationalism in Europe, growing xenophobia, ultra-right forces in to take advantage of globalization is the big issue of immigration the development of the basic trend of the world economy, especially since the 20th century and further the momentum of globalization accelerated. There is now awareness of globalization is not uniform and reflect. In all the debates on globalization and defined in, I much prefer ����³���� point of view, the British scholar in the "" Globalization of the Conclusion " > an article about "the concept of globalization today the first misunderstanding," "is to use a super way of Economic theories, such as human sociology, international politics, social philosophy and culture of the way, unrestricted generalization The concept of the meaning of globalization. "heart, although the current sense of the consequences of globalization inevitably involves political, cultural areas, but mainly dominated by the big powers of Economic globalization, transnational corporations, on the contrary, in the political and cultural level, we see the phenomenon more precisely the unity of the process of economic globalization, fragmentation and faults. this one, caused by the negative effects of globalization and extreme nationalism, ethnic rising tide of xenophobia in the West , caused by the immigration division and political differences has become an important issue, for the European countries, such a concentration typical of nationalist areas, coupled with the European integration process in recent years, the people of this psychological phenomenon resulting more serious .

We know that in 1999, the Austrian far-right party won the election in the the main reason is that they proposed in their platform of "no immigrants" slogan, but the 2002 French presidential election is almost a repeat of this scene a few years ago. Far-right " National Front "candidate Le Pen actually in the first round of presidential elections 16.86% of the vote to beat Jospin into second round of the French presidential election, was called up and down France and Europe" political earthquake. "Even in the was "to cripple the existing" background, he was still able to obtain in the second round of the election support rate of 17.79%, which is the main campaign's slogan is "France and the French people first" and "out of the EU" and advocated rid of all immigrants. they put their worsening economic situation, social unrest, rising unemployment and other issues were all due to immigration issues, criticized the existing government policy as detrimental .2007 French presidential election, Sakeqiti out of the income tight immigration policy, illegal immigration measures to strike hard again so that he attracted a large number of lower middle class voters. In 2002 the Dutch general election, the far-right political party representatives Thun It is also rich with its anti-immigrant hard-line Muslim immigrants in particular, position of the Netherlands won the support of voters increased. In Denmark, the right-wing Liberal Party won the 2001 general election and an important reason is that extreme right-wing People's Party form a coalition on immigration and refugee issues raised slogans in order to meet the radical anti-foreign xenophobia Sui Xu .

(B) of the party policy convergence to the Socialist Party's campaign platform innovations difficult
Although Europe is the implementation of multi-party system, but a long time, the political landscape has been left and right, swinging between the two factions can be said to be "multi-polar pattern of the party." If from the governing style and specific policy perspective, the two still leaves a large faction of different characteristics, there are some differences. But even in a period of intense confrontation between two groups, within their own camp, there are moderate, conservative, freedom divided factions. and long-term political struggle has been to make them aware to: There is no single policy can cover the problems of modern society, so to retain the characteristics of the party, we must learn from his party's policy as an effective use. in the political confrontation of the struggle, the forces gradually decline in the opposition party will usually try to accept some of the arguments, and claim it as their own publicity. belittles one of the classic strategy is "comprehensive opposing positions, and by the absorption of one of the opponent's point of view, and then to the highest possible retention The purpose of his position. "British sociologist Anthony Giddens in the" "Beyond Left and right>> referring to a view of the book: socialism has become conservative, conservatism has become radical. the difference between left and right still exists, but the significance of this distinction, and in the past have been different. generated in the process of modernization, some new problem is not obvious for the left or right, complex and diverse class structure in Europe, religion, social psychology, is a complex ethnic composition synthesis. The long process of diversification and the final results reflect the partisan interests of political life is gradually running, different program policies attract each other and mutual convergence.

France, for example, the three cohabitation, the two parties about the policy toward the phenomenon is more obvious. For example, if Greenspan on February 20, 2002 announced his candidacy, proposed the construction of a "active, safe, fair, strong, modern French "campaign slogan .3 14, Chirac In" "What I promise to France>> the election program, the proposed construction of" the great French, unity of the French, "the campaign slogan, The comparison of the two parties in this election in the economic recovery, political reform, the fight against crime, increase employment and social welfare measures proposed, in addition to specific differences in expression, we could barely see the real sense of the difference. Since the "Who have a good hand, no one has a trump card, "which sent voters will vote for the lower significance.

(C) the recovery trend of individualism and voter apathy has increased political awareness of the election variable
Western countries, the implementation of the election system is the original meaning of political participation through the expansion of the electorate to keep the people of the state and society issues, can also increase the transparency of politics, but since the 20th century, 70 years, voter apathy in politics has only increased. With the development of information technology revolution and the popularity of the network, the development of Western capitalism into by some scholars call "post-industrial society" or "post-modern society", stressed the concern a Majesty, to maintain lifestyle, culture, diversity means of a personal era seemed to come. In 2002 the French presidential election, two rounds of electoral abstention rate of 28.44% and 20.29% in the first round of parliamentary elections, abstention rate as high as 36%. In France the young Among this phenomenon is particularly obvious, "according to the French Bureau of Statistics Pusuo Si Yi attended on April 23 in Paris, Orl��ans, Montpellier, Toulouse, 60 000 anti-Le Pen demonstrations of French youth survey, 18 to 24 years old, 37% of young people did not vote. "_l4J people in the voting, 1 / 3 of the votes cast to the far right. In the UK, in recent years, declining voter turnout in local elections in the 2004 local elections, voter turnout is only 37%. E53 from the European Parliament elections of view, people in 1979, up 62% turnout rate in 2004 fell to 45%, while in H this year's parliamentary elections in June Vote rate of only 43.39%, a record low. Prior to this, based on 4 servings of a dish survey indicated that 53% of voters are not interested, 62% of voters said the ballot cents particular significance. l from the above data difficult to see that voters and the democratic rights of the Shitongerxi political indifference can not but reflect the profound democratic European society and may cause damage to the crisis. In recent years the EU constitutional treaty was rejected in some countries and the integration process setback say that it is a manifestation of this democratic crisis of confidence. reposted elsewhere in the Research Papers Download http://www.hi138.com (d) the deteriorating world economic situation that the Socialist Party in some countries
Government expects the economic development goals and social policies is difficult to achieve since spring 2001, the U.S. "new economy" burst and the Japanese economic "stagflation" trend to further deepen the world economy has shown a declining trend, while more than occurred in the same year in September from the "terrorist incident" no doubt the U.S. economy and the world economy even worse. deteriorating world economic situation directly affects economic recovery in Europe in 2001, the EU's economic growth forecast to 3.5% of the original, then adjusted to 2%, then After adjustment to 1.7%, while the actual growth rate this year was only 1.6%. In recent years, the EU's economic growth rate has been hovering between 1% 2%, showing weak economic growth, competitiveness in decline .2007 U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and the 2008 outbreak of the worsening international financial crisis, the EU has undoubtedly had the economic downturn even worse. According to the European Central Bank's forecast 2009 GDP growth rate of the euro area countries, a 1% C-DP is a negative growth in the OECD's projections are more pessimistic, if you count all the European countries, real GDP growth could reach a negative 2 to 3 percentage points .7 _ in the euro area, proved that people brought about by the euro's launch dynamic growth expected to be too optimistic, on the contrary as oil and food prices, the outbreak of mad cow disease and foot and mouth disease tend to the weak euro, a substantial decline in spending power of ordinary people.

Several major countries on the EU's specific situation, in France, objectively speaking, from the Socialist Party came to power since 1997, its economic situation is far better than other Western European countries, and its economic growth the past few years has remained at more than 3%: 1998 3.5% 1999 3% 2000 3.3%. | 8j (n hesitant) to implement the socialist government is also beginning a number of other reform policies. But from 2001 , the French economic recession, the French government had forecast growth in France in 2001 may reach about 3.3%, but the real growth is expected to lower than a full percentage point since then has been in a recession. This is not only the reform policies of the Socialist Party by a blow to the expected economic growth target difficult to fulfill, and the economic downturn caused by the various social problems erupted again, the situation is volatile, the Government are unable to reverse the situation in the short term, the voters of the existing government's disappointment and discontent will seasonal produced. In Britain, Tony Blair has set a growth rate pegged at more than 3% of the outstanding achievements, but the government took office two years after Brown, the British economy is facing a serious recession in over half a century, especially with the the development of the international financial crisis, the United Kingdom are the virtual and the real economy have been seriously affected. According to the British National Economic and Social Research Institute data, status comparable to the British economy during the recession of 1979. and according to the British Government in March 2009 Statistics released show that in February 2009 the British unemployment rate of increase since February 1971 created the largest.

Third, what course of social democracy
Left-wing forces in the world at a disadvantage in the context of the whole, the phenomenon of European politics undoubtedly contributed to the right wing of the momentum, increasing the difficulty of the Left came to power, and is bound to cause chain reaction in other countries, which is many scholars worry The political right in Europe and the world political issues. but there are problems on the other hand, as we noted above analysis, the phenomenon is to accelerate the process of globalization, the international financial crisis intensified and the international terrorist incidents and extremism continue to rampant that some specific place under international economic and political environment, from the national right wing slogan and campaign strategy perspective, their common core idea is xenophobia, anti-immigration, fighting crime. "Against this background , the public's vote is reflected in the extent to which the far-right policy sensible long-term nature of support or sympathy is not just a vote or 'Vote Fashion' is worth considering as the Netherlands, the right-wing figures during the 2002 general election Thun was originally rich in order to prevent the assassination of right-wing came to power unexpectedly won the party for a lot of public sympathy vote.

From the current government policy in these countries see the rise of the right-wing forces, its policy is not far right, basically in the right, still not out of the stereotype of the middle of the road. And in the era of globalization, "modern society has been the emergence of many new phenomena the left and right factions can not be covered by the scope of attention, and which gives the middle filled with substantive content "of each country's government and people are thinking about almost common problem: how to promote economic growth while and maintain social justice. As Giddens told Germany <<Times "> magazine interview, said" This does not mean the revival of ideological conservatives. "" Europe, 50% of voters clear that more people are neither left nor right wing. "So, even if the right-wing came to power, Europe's political direction will not materially change the policy with the middle color is still a wise choice for the Government . the issue of different government in individual practices may be different or even extreme measures, but "this does not make any change in principle". "center-right political parties, the only way forward is to create an effective and lasting right the third way model. "
In Europe, social democracy has gone from formation to the development of the course of more than a century, during the development of social democracy through the ebb and setbacks, but the light of changes in the ability to adjust and amend its development is always to find end of the century a new starting point .20 on the one hand the rise of the Third Way reflects the dramatic changes in European Social Democratic Party after the Soviet Union and socialist theory of reflection and new exploration, on the other hand they are keenly aware of the changing times, especially the process of globalization generated by increased number of new issues, and this made a positive response. So, although Social Democratic Party, the current political environment is not optimistic, but we can see them in addressing social problems and meet the challenges of globalization, or to provide a many useful new ideas, it tries to social justice and economic growth of capitalism find a viable path, "this road should be indifferent to global social justice and our sense of morality together." This should be a social The main significance of democracy lies, as long as there is the basis of this principle, the theory of the Social Democratic Party and its existence will not lose its meaning and value. Links http://www.hi138.com Research Papers Download