*** JEAN-MICHEL DE WAELE, DANIEL-LOUIS SEILER (Editors): Les partis de la gauche anticapitaliste en Europe. Economica (49 rue Héricart, F-75015 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 45781292 - fax: 45750567 - Internet: http://www.economica.fr ). "Politiques comparées" series. 2012, 324 pp. €29. ISBN 978-2-7178-6101-3.
Greece and more broadly speaking the euro zone countries, as well as the European Union as a whole, have for number of days now had their eyes trained on Alexis Tsipras whose Radical Left Coalition Party, Syriza -, has become the second major political force in the country following the general elections on 6 May last. Where does this party come from and which, in 2009, only obtained 4.6% of the vote, whereas in the last elections it received 12 times as many votes cast? The party stems directly from the Coalition of the Left and Progress, the Synaspismos tis Aristeras kai tis Proodou, which in 1987, as the successor of the so-called Greek Communist Party (“of the exterior”, with its headquarters in Romania), had remained loyal to the Marxist Leninist doctrine developed until Gorbatchev) and the so-called Greek Communist Party “of the interior”. From 1987 the latter attempted to put forward a political project inspired by Western European socialism and left ecologists. The main enemy this coalition had in its sights was Pasok, which it believed was guilty under Andreas Papandreou of having usurped communist slogans in an effort to win power. This aversion to Pasok even lead the Synaspismos to developing an alliance with New Democracy in 1989. This unholy alliance was not to the liking of the communist rank-and-file, particularly the older members and led to the orthodox communists in the organisation leaving. Their main inspiration was now mainly based on a “nationalist populism” and it subsequently described the International Monetary Fund as “an army of occupation” and the Socialist ministers of George Papandreou as “collaborators”. The Greek Communists obtained 8.4% of the vote last Sunday, much less than the vote for Syriza. Why? The Commission has benefited from a first-hand analysis in order to respond to this question, given that the Greek Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, had been… the president of the Coalition of the Left and Progress before joining the ranks of Pasok in 2004. The Commissioner in charge of fisheries would undoubtedly have explained to her colleagues that the parties of the reformist radical left Synaspismos and Syriza had “educated leaders who were socially integrated into modern life” and its supporters were mainly students, pacifists and anti-globalisation activists. Communist leaders, however, “mainly come from the workers and agricultural unions controlled by the party and are less educated and are less an important social sphere of influence”.
This is some of the information provided in this very useful book. Nikos Marantzidis is a senior lecturer at the University of Macedonia-Salonika and is not wrong when he affirms in his conclusions that the serious economic crisis affecting the country constitutes, “a favourable situation for increasing the number of voters… for the left anticapitalist parties in Greece”. His final conclusion captures the essence of what is happening in the here and now, “the future will show us whether the parties of the anticapitalist left in Greece really can claim to represent something other than a protest vote from part of the electorate”. The jury is obviously still out on this question. In the meantime, this book is a good example of a collectively written scientific contribution, which does not just clarify the situation affecting the left in Greece. It also looks at the other anticapitalist left groupings in other European Union countries and provides a scientifically and meticulously scrutinised examination in this connection. Particular attention is paid to the European United Left/Nordic Left at the European Parliament and the Party of the European Left. In this context, in the comparative and introductory part of the book, Professor Jean-Michel De Waele (Université libre in Brussels) most appropriately puts the clocks at the right time in a footnote in which he points out that despite the Maastricht Treaty and the regulation on their status and funding, “extra-parliamentary partisan European organisations cannot claim to be European political parties” insofar as it is the national parties that invest them with this denomination and that they do not enjoy any endorsement of the political system.
In the comparative part of the book, there is also an analysis of the impact of the left on European governments. This is written by two political scientists, Tim Bale (University of Sussex) and Richard Dunphy (University of Dundee). The book opens with a brilliant essay on the typology of the anticapitalist left in Europe. In this essay, Professor Daniel-Louis Seiler (Institute of Political Studies in Aix-en-Provence) examines this question by going right back to the French Revolution. He explains that it is the shortcomings on the left, the fact that many Social Democratic leaders accepted the ultra-liberal ideological straitjacket, which is at the origin of this reawakening in a left that is hostile to the capitalist system or at least to the worst abuses and problems it creates.
Michel Theys
*** CORINNE DELOY: 2002-2012: les évolutions politiques en Europe. 10 ans de chroniques électorales. Fondation Robert Schuman (29 bd. Raspail, F-75007 Paris / 40 rue des Drapiers, B-1050 B Brussels. Tel: (33-1) 53638300 or (32-2) 5024713 - fax: (33-1) 53638301 or (32-2) 5024884 - E-Mail: info@robert-schuman.eu - Internet: http://www.robert-schuman.eu ). « Notes de la Fondation Robert Schuman » series, No. 50. 2012, 85 pp, €10 (+ Postal Charges: €2 for France, €3 for the European Union). ISBN 978-2-917433-15-7.
It is precisely ten years since the Robert Schuman Foundation set up its Observatory for Elections in Europe with the goal of informing Europeans about the current electoral systems and national elections organised by the member states of the European Union and the Council of Europe. Corinne Deloy and her predecessors have therefore for the past ten years presented and analysed each election in a detailed way through a campaign briefing eight days before the election in question takes place, particularly in light of the opinion polls, together with an interpretive explanation of the election results. It goes without saying that certain lessons can be learnt from the past decade and this publication looks at those lessons analysed by Corinne Deloy, who heads the International research centre at Sciences-Po. Unsurprisingly, she illustrates and describes the apparently irresistible rise in the majority of European countries of right-wing parties as opposed to a social democratic left, which has failed to benefit from the fact that, “it has always denounced the worst excesses of the financial system”. The right has appropriated its ideas on, “the best kind of governance of the economic system, regulation, an ethical capitalism”. Should we accept what Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Foundation, says, however, when he writes in his preface that, “the dilution of the traditional left right division is… obvious, which partly explains the fall in overall voter turnout”? The recent progress made by radical left parties in France and Greece, obviously flies in the face of this observation and somewhat bolsters the analysis made by Corinne Deloy according to which, “the domination of the right remains… fragile, particularly threatened by voter disaffection, the appearance of new divisions and the expansion of populism”, which can be either of the right or left, “three different phenomena which reveal an identity crisis sweeping over the European mainland”. Whence the appropriateness of her warning that, “the consolidation and deepening of political Europe is just as vital as economic union”! Let's hope that the national princelings in charge of us remember this when decisions need to be made … (MT)
*** The Federalist. A Political Review. Edif (8 Villa Glori, I-27100 Pavia. Internet: http://www.thefederalist.eu ). 2011, 80 pp. Annual subscription: €35 (Europe), €50 (outside Europe).
The main focus of this 2011 edition of this publication and close political ally of the Movimento Federalista Europeo is on the Eurozone crisis and the risks that these represent to European construction. It also looks at the possibilities that exist for finding an exit-strategy to this crisis. The editorial, The European Project Faces its Day of Reckoning, provides an unambiguous warning in its title and states that the time has now come for the choice “to unite or perish”. If we want to prevent the Greek crisis leading to a domino effect and the collapse of the Eurozone, indeed the disappearance of the Union as a whole, the time has also come for political leaders to return to the, “ideals of the founding fathers whose original intention was to lay the foundations not of a market (…) but of a federal political union. The Union is now not just threatened by a “slow and tolerable decline” but by an horrendous disaster and the publication explains, that a “Federation within the Confederation, starting with the Eurogroup countries” is needed. In order to achieve this aim, The Federalist advocates four preliminary reforms. The first consists of finding, “formulas capable of institutionalising (and 'interiorising') the mechanisms of reciprocal solidarity”, which will require a radical overhaul in the way Germany thinks about things. It will then be necessary to “limit the sovereignty of the Eurozone countries in matters of budgetary policy in a different way to that envisaged in an intergovernmental context, which has left far too much to our leaders because the real problem today is that of “democratic legitimacy”, which leads, as in Greece, to “a vicious circle”. This leads on to the third condition, the need for Eurozone countries to find the appropriate instruments to enable them to “promote, at European level, a plan for growth, development and employment”, which implies a return to own resources and a more generous budget than is currently the case and therefore, also, “the introduction of the power of taxation at European level”. Finally, the last of these preliminary conditions that would need to be met appears rather less obvious and involves providing Europe with a genuine foreign and security policy. These revolutionary demands according to The Federalist are within our grasp because they do not depend on the assent of all 27 member states but rather, the agreement of the Eurozone countries driven by “the same deadly threat and by the will to react in unison”. These countries will all subsequently need to agree on a “Eurogroup Treaty”, which will enable their burgeoning federation to comply with the existing Confederation …
(MT)
*** CHRISTINE DELORY-MOMBERGER, GUNTER GEBAUER, MARIANNE KRÜGER-POTRATZ, CHRISTIANE MONTANDON, CHRISTOPH WULF (Editors): La citoyenneté européenne. Désirs d'Europe, regards des marges. L'Harmattan (5-7 rue de l'École Polytechnique, F-75005 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 40467920 fax: 43258203 - Email: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr - Internet: http://www.librairieharmattan.com ). « Éducation comparée » series. 2011, 395 pp. €38. ISBN 978-2-296-55679-9.
This book is a spin-off of the German version and published under the title “Europäische Bürgerschaft in Bewegung” by Waxman Verlag publishers. It is mainly aimed at pedagogues and is the result of a research project subsidised by the Franco German Youth Office and entitled, “How to Teach European Citizenship? With Linguistic and Cultural Plurality”. For three years young researchers from these two countries specialising in educational science, psychology, sociology (of religion), ethnology, literature, history, history of art and philosophy, attempted to define European citizenship in a French and German perspective, without leaving out a number of marginal groups that are often under represented in these kinds of study. In the first part of the book, the writers tackle the possible impact of the learning and training processes, through ethnographic investigations carried out in the European School of Karlsruhe and among children living on Parisian estates. The other essays focused on representations of Europe and its significance to young children in primary schools and young people from poor immigrant backgrounds. In the second half of the book, the role of the institutions is tackled in the transmission of the idea of European citizenship. This reveals that for the education establishment in Germany, intercultural learning remains closely linked to the idea of migration as a factor of conflict. Another contribution looks at European citizenship in the perspective of naturalisation procedures in the two countries in view of determining whether European citizenship impacts on this and what exact role it should play. The role of religion in the elaboration of European citizenship is also investigated. The third part of the book analyses development dynamics and the final part of the book focuses on “the experience of otherness” and seeks to clarify the tension existing between a tendency that favours a homogenous oriented conception of European citizenship and the other, which promotes greater diversity.
(PBo)
*** OLIVIER DARD: Le corporatisme dans l'aire francophone au XXème siècle. Peter Lang
(1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Convergences » series, No. 66. 2011, 249 pp. €50. ISBN 978-3-0343-1066-6.
This book is an extension of a colloquy organised by the Université Paul Verlaine de Metz. It contains contributions from around ten different historians who analyse one of the major points of contact between the radical French and foreign political right, the concept of corporatism. In his introduction, Professor Dard explains that this constituted the major bastion in their social and economic project during the 20th century, which was perceived as, “the century of corporatism”. The contributions focused principally on the corporatism in French-speaking environments, particularly France, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland. It is also mainly the first half of the last century that constituted the “halcyon years for corporatism”. The different authors subsequently illustrate that corporatism effectively found extremely fertile ground in the French-speaking world but that the corporatist phenomenon was not unified by any claim to belonging to a common culture.
(PBo)