The Politics of Social Justice after the Collapse of the Left-Right Continuum

The combined effect of changes in the structure of the political

economy and the structure of political competition over the past

decade has lead to the erosion of the European Social Model. This

paper traces these two trajectories of change in the mature

democraties of Europe. My main hypothesis is that a new political

cleavage, shaped by citizens' perceptions of the social impact of

globalization, is opting out to replace the left-right dichotomy that

had organized the ideological space in Europe over the past century.

The new axis of political competition runs across, rather than along,

the left-right ideological continuum, splitting the typical

constituencies of the Left and the Right. This entails adverse

consequences for the social justice agenda in two ways. First, an

alliance between capital and labor in favor of commodification emerges

around one of the poles of the new axis of political competition.

Second, this axis positions the constituencies of the 'old' and the

'new' Left against each other -- as their preferences for public

policies start to conflict (e.g. regarding the agenda of economic

competition, or the introduction of costly green technology). As a

result, the alliance of social forces that supported the project of

the European Social Model (based on a series of policies of

labor-force decommodification) is being eroded. This means that

neither of the new poles of political competition can issue

governments enjoying sufficient societal support for active revival of

the welfare state. If the classical instruments of political

representation and party government become unfit for advancing a

progressive social policy agenda, what alternative paths are

available?