The Theory of Social Democracy

This book amounts to a fine attempt to theorise a political approach that has tended to lack a distinct and coherent theory. Until the 1990s social-democracy was mostly defined as "moderate socialism", "reformist socialism" or "centre-leftism" and, despite its real-world performance, it generally lacked a coherent theoretical base tending instead towards mildly ideological pragmatism. Most social-democratic party constitutions still remain rooted in a democratic-socialist discourse to this day despite the absence of interest in pursuing such goals in reality. The gap that has existed between the professed socialist aims of most social-democratic parties and their moderate, pragmatic practices has proved an interesting area of study for academic and activist critics of social-democracy but has done little to facilitate the development of a specific "social-democratic thinking". For most of its history, social-democracy has mostly amounted to relatively distinct set of identifiable policies but lacked an underlying theory of its own. Since the 1990s however, social-democracy has been in a process of transformation that has led its own right wing to explicitly define its goals in not only in non-socialist terms, but also in ways that break with traditional social-democratic practices and values. This text attempts to provide a theoretical understanding rooted in traditional, pragmatic, centre-left social-democracy while both acknowledging its socialist roots and also dealing with the challenge posed by its right wing "Third Way" variant. Overall, it is an impressive attempt to delineate a specifically "social-democratic" (as distinct from socialist or "Third Way") approach to policy. It is an interesting process observing the emergence of an expressly non-socialist (even anti-socialist) discourse within social-democratic parties around the world which has pushed them clearly outside the traditional understanding of the "Left" into "centre-right" territory. This book might be seen as a move to reconceptualise social-democracy as a movement of the "centre-left" as it has traditionally been understood in post-war Europe. This text is a very welcome, if not entirely convincing attempt at defining and re-casting the social-democratic project in the post cold-war era in a way that deserves the attention, discussion and critique of serious democratic socialist and social-democratic thinkers. A very good launching pad for debate.

From my FB page, Race for EqualityLet me preface this post by saying that Thomas Meyer’s book, “The Theory of Social Democracy”, left me with so many mixed feelings that I was not able to finish it. The good things his text has to offer are so few and far between that I contemplated not writing anything at all. However, after reading and sorting through his pretentious dialogue for several days, it would have frustrated me even more to say nothing.I downloaded the book because I believe that if I’m going to continue taking a staunch position on social matters and racism in the black community, I should expand my horizons on broader variables, such as developing a better understanding of how to resolve our broken judicial system. And make no mistake, it is broken. Not only do the numbers show it, not only are there truckloads of information to back up that research, but the pervasive arrogance of white culture to deny those truths lingers in the air like the stench of ferment once you’ve internalized it.I digress, however. What I was looking for from Meyer was solutions. While there were redeeming moments in his book that made me feel confident in my purchase, it was an overall disappointment. Let me be frank: a “circus of words” in speech or text has no advantage over the toddler who says exactly what he wants plainly and clearly. Meyer’s authorship, though ideologically valid, was academic garbage. Suffice it to say, his book could easily have been 40% shorter and more concise if he had been more organized both in his delivery and his content.I will never again buy one of his books and unless you want the headache I had, I suggest you do the same. As with my other reviews, this will also go on the Amazon site. He gets two stars instead of one, saved only by his vocabulary.

I have never been reading Social Democratic theory before. But this book is Reaktion enlightening in order to compare what a Social Democratic world is and can be. It’s clear differentiation to libertarian thinking is illuminating

YET,MY ORDER HAS NOT CAME TO ME SO I CAN'T COMMENT. WHEN ÝT WÝLL ARRÝVE TO ME, I REVÝEW ÝT... I HOPE THAT I ACCURATELY UNDERSTAND YOUR WANT.

As a labor union activist who has no academic training in political science, I found the book unreadable. The book is very academic, in the sense that it devotes most of its space to discuss and compare previous work in political science, and comparing small variants of abstract notions, e.g., "risk" or "right".As someone who was more interested in a building a coherent vision of society and goals for a social democratic movement, I found the book completely useless. If you are interested in such kind of a book, I found the book "What is Social Democracy?" by Ingvar Carlsson and Anne-Marie Lindgren to be much more useful. The book is available online.

Nice but the author fails from the get-go by ignoring what Libertarianism actually is: offering a choice of Libertarian social democracy, synthesizing his false opposition.Libertarians want a fully voluntary American System (not the Marxist 'social democratic' perversion) with focus on voluntary tools so it's consistent with Natural Rights.Author should start by getting acquainted with basic Libertarianism via the Libertarian International Organization.