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Fragmentation and Pluralism of Leftist Parties in Europe

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Fragmentation and Pluralism of Leftist Parties in Europe Cornelia Hildebrandt ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG Fragmentation and pluralism of Leftist parties in Europe Introduction Like other parties, left-wing parties set themselves the task of representing different interests, integrating them into a political concept or overall platform, and striving to gain political power so as to implement these interests and concepts. In so doing they have to consider the possibility of participating in government, however contentious this option may be in their own ranks. They must be able to develop an inner structure and culture which enables them to perform these tasks. This involves training political leaders. Left-wing parties are also scenes of political power struggles about who has the ultimate say on strategic and programmatic issues in the parties, about gaining acceptance for political and power concepts. But they also concern issues of competence and recognition both inside and outside the parties. The relationships between the left-wing parties of a party system and the power constellations within the parties are the expression of a permanent struggle. Within a party system left-wing parties are distinguished first with reference to the fault line between social justice and free markets, and secondly with reference to the socio-cultural fault line between authoritarian and libertarian political concepts.1 To this should be added the attitude of left-wing parties to the European Union, which fluctuates between acceptance of the EU as an arena of political action and a critical attitude to its domineering political approaches and a rejection of the EU as an imperial power block, together with a general rejection of its prevailing policies. In order to distinguish and place the parties of different party systems 2 at European level the term “party family”3 is used. The left-wing parties belong to the party families of the social 1 The cleavage- or fault-line concept was developed in: Seymour M Lipset/Stein Rokkan: Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments in Seymour M. Lipset (ed.): Party Systems and Voter Alignments. Cross- National Perspectives , New York, 1967, pp. 1-63. On the significance of the two fault lines mentioned for the German party system cf. Oskar Niedermayer: Die Veränderungen des deutschen Parteissystems in Michael Brie/Cornelia Hildebrandt (eds.): Parteien und Bewegungen. Die Linke im Aufbruch , Berlin, 2006, pp. 101-110. 2 Among the numerous descriptions of party systems in Europe the following may be mentioned by way of example: Oskar Niedermayer/Richard Stöss/Melanie Haas: Die Parteiensysteme Westeuropas , Wiesbaden, 2009; Wolfgang Ismayr: Die politischen Systeme Westeuropas , Wiesbaden, 2008, and Die politischen Systeme Osteuropas , Wiesbaden, 2004; Jürgen Mittag/Janosch Steuwer: Politische Parteien in der EU , Vienna, 2010; Ellen Bos/Dieter Segert (eds.): Osteuropäische Demokratien als Trendsetter? Parteienuand Parteiensysteme nach dem Ende des Übergangsjahrzehnts , Opladen, 2008. 1 Cornelia Hildebrandt ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG democratic parties, the Greens and parties who see themselves as being to the left of the Social Democrats and the Greens, hereinafter referred to as Leftist parties. The classification of the parties made by the Party Research Unit – mainly along the above-mentioned social fault lines – and the parties’ own classification of themselves has nothing to do with the positioning of the individual parties vis-à-vis one another, as it is not unusual for them to deny each other the right to call themselves left-wing. Left-wing parties all describe themselves in varying measure as being welfare state-oriented, although the Leftist parties reject the so-called free market economy more than the others. After the failure in the late 20th century of the Third Way aimed at reconciling social equality of opportunity with the free market system, the social democratic parties are still in search of policies that could facilitate such a reconciliation. They are currently being torn between the two poles without having any clear concept. The Greens too, as an ecological-liberal civil- rights party, are trying to reconcile social justice and market economics. Although the Leftist parties largely avoid this contradiction in their platforms, seeking to combine the defence of the welfare state with a prospect of changing or overcoming the system, even they have to face up to it in their practical politics at regional or national level. The parties of the left-wing political camp are also separated by a socio-cultural fault line. The greatest value is attached to libertarian values by the Green parties, quite unlike the traditional communist parties.4 They differ according to their acceptance, criticism or rejection of the social system and their view of necessary social transformations. What really influences their policies is whether they are in power or opposition. To this must be added differences in determining the ways in which they mean to achieving their social aims and in their choice of strategic cooperation partners. 3 Cf. Tim Spier (2009): Linksparteien in Westeuropa. Eine kohärente Parteienfamilie? Lecture at the conference on “Parteienfamilien – Identitätsbestimmend oder nur noch Etikett?” of the Party Research Unit of the DVPW (Prof. Jun, Prof. Niedermayer), within the framework of the DVPW (German Political Science Association) Congress in Kiel, 2009, p. 13. 4 Ibid. 2 Cornelia Hildebrandt ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG Left-wing party families Party Social democratic Leftist party family Green party families party family family Main current: Social democratic Democratic Communist Green socialist Analysis of 21st century = Global financial- Imperialism as Contradiction present Deepest historical market capitalism highest stage of between a society upheavals since under neoliberal capitalism; production process the Industrial hegemony with historically new that destroys the Revolution; new class links between natural development open: divisions international foundations of our society of social and new corporations and lives and potential democracy or possibilities of governments. for an ecological unleashed emancipation. and humane violence. transformation. View of Contradiction Equal importance Dominance of Centrality of the central fault between of different social conflict between ecological fault lines unregulated conflicts: Labour labour and line. globalization and and capital, man capital. social democracy. and woman, nature and society. Aim of social Social democracy Democratic Society of the Sustainable and development as combination of society, in which free and equal peaceful society, welfare state and people can live without social harmony. socio-ecologically their own lives in exploitation and regulated market social security and oppression. economy. solidarity. Modes of Evolutionary Transformational Revolutionary Evolutionary, change development to be process with social process of ecological- implemented via upheavals. overcoming economic reforms. capitalism. development; Green New Deal. Political Centre-Left Red-red-Green Orientation to Centre-Left option/ alliances with trade coalitions and Left working-class alliances and strategic unions, social alliances with movement, trade cooperation with a partners welfare trade unions and unions and wide strong associations, etc. wide variety of variety of anti- participatory civil social movements. capitalist society. movements. Diversity and fragmentation of Leftist parties The party landscape to the left of the Social Democracy is dominated by parties with a rich tradition going back 100 years in some cases, a history that is largely that of the Social 3 Cornelia Hildebrandt ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG Democracy, and more recent parties which are the products of dissolutions, splits, mergers or the founding of new political organizations. Thus one can speak of a very dynamic, constantly shifting party landscape on the European Left, which currently contains communist, reform- communist, socialist, left-social democratic, Green/left-wing, Trotskyite 5 and other parties. Some countries have one dominant Leftist party, while others have two or more Leftist parties with very different orientations that determine their political and parliamentary relevance. Comparative European party studies deal with socially relevant parties, i.e. parties that take part in elections at least at regional level and are able to win seats. An all-European comparison of Leftist parties can therefore only be based on analyses of such Leftist parties as are represented in elected bodies. Thus although the numerous mini-parties and splinter groups of the radical Left are mentioned in the country reports available here, they are not the subject of these studies given the absence of empirical analyses. The national significance of Leftist parties largely correlates with their results in the European elections. Thus far the Leftist parties of Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania have not yet been represented in the European Parliament.6 AKEL in Cyprus, the Left Alliance in Iceland, and the Socialist Left Party in Norway (SV) are at present in government. Leftist parties in Europe that are currently strong include the KS ČM in the Czech Republic, the Left Party in Germany, the Bloco de Esquerda and the Communist Party in Portugal, and Sinn Fein in Ireland. In Spain and Portugal left-wing parties take the form of organizations composed
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