The Dilemmas of Social Democracies

Reviews / Votes

In this fascinating collection of studies of the obstacles to the realization of the deep principles of social democracy, cooperation, and sharing, the endless failures of well-meant programs of betterment are honestly faced. The key insight, reflecting movements in the human sciences generally, is to foreground the role of culture in the reproduction of the obstacles to the realization of a just world. There are no mechanisms of failure. Diagnosis is the first step to cure of pathologies, be they organic, moral, or social. In this book we have a thrilling beginning. -- Rom Harre, Linacre College The Dilemmas of Social Democracies is a spiritually and historically deep analysis of the origins and development of what the authors call 'humanity's greatest achievement so far in harnessing human energy and mobilizing natural resources and capital in the service of meeting everybody's needs.' However, Howard Richards and Joanna Swanger are not interested only in the historical achievements of Social Democracy but provide also an original scrutiny of its limits and inherent contradictions. What is perhaps most striking about this book is its ambitious attempt to go beyond eurocentrism and learn from a wide variety of global experiences, from South Africa and Indonesia to Venezuela. In short, this is a highly recommendable book on social democracy written from the cosmopolitical perspective of 'ethical construction of social reality.' -- Heikki Patomaeki, University of Helsinki Richards and Swanger have given us what we now most sorely need, informed hope. In a work of stunning scholarship, deeply researched and broad in vision, interpreted in the light of some of the most significant modern philosophic and social science works, it explores highly instructive historic experiences in social democracy. Their work makes it clearly evident that another world is, indeed, possible. Within the framework of their concepts of social action and ethical construction, they vividly articulate the practical and attainable possibilities for the achievement of global social justice that lie in the principles of cooperation and sharing. It is a work that should be read, reflected on, and widely used by educators, scholars, and activists committed to the struggle for the possibilities these authors identify in learnings derived actual historic experience. -- Betty A. Reardon, Teachers College Columbia University