The left must open up to a world of ideas

Social democrats must dig deep into their own rich history of empowering political thought, whilst looking beyond Europe’s shores to a world of new ideas. The present weakness of centre-left parties in the industrialised world is frequently attributed to poor leadership, flawed electoral strategy, and dysfunctional communications. Contingent and conjectural factors such as the global economic crisis have also been invoked in explaining the circumstances of defeat. Far less attention has been given, however, to the depth of the ideological and intellectual crisis that Western social democracy now faces. Social democratic parties have been slow to recognise that the world rapidly moves on and our society is now in the grip of three structural crises: the global financial crisis and its aftermath; the global competition crisis posed by China, India and Brazil; and the looming climate crisis„, scrie un bun amic Patrick Diamon intr-un articol pe care il recomand. Parerea voastra?