Paper Titles & Abstracts

This paper offers a framework to the study of 'the left' and the Financial and European crisis that includes Social Democratic, left-green, and democratic socialist parties as well as national social movements (such as trade unions, protest groups) representing 'centre-left' political approaches that differ not only ideologically from Merkel's, Sarkozy's and Draghi's etc. 'centre-right' policy choices, but also in their analysis of the crisis and the policy choices that could be chosen to deal with it, nationally as well as on the EU level.." The financial crisis of 2007-08 was widely interpreted as a consequence of the neo-liberal model of deregulation, marketisation and privatisation that had dominated the preceding two decades, and there was an expectation that the crisis would create an opportunity for a revitalization of left politics. But instead, the euro-zone crisis has led to more cut-backs, more austerity and a vast increase in inequality. The electoral and policy record of left-wing parties has been very mixed. Some have experienced success, such as the Socialists in France and (though they failed narrowly to win office) Syriza in Greece. Others have lost power, such as the British Labour Party and the Spanish PSOE. This paper develops strategies on how "left-wing" party policy development, adoption and influence components can be best analyzed and compared on a cross-national basis, offering a wider analytical frame for the other papers on this panel.