social democracy

An encomium to the British (Welfare State)…

Mick Fealty on May 17, 2011, 12:16 pm

| Readers 4

And who better to deliver it on the day that’s in it than Fintan O’Toole… If, in the period between 1945 and 1979, you wanted to understand the difference between ideology and human realities, the question to ask was: what’s the difference between England and Ireland? In the realm of rhetoric and abstraction, the answer was to be found in endless discourses about history, religion, victimhood and oppression, the Empire and the Four Green Fields. But for those who grew …

The Centre-Left in Northern Ireland. Time to step over the obstacles?

Paul Evans on November 5, 2010, 4:25 pm

| Readers 7

As the SDLP gather this weekend, here’s a question for you: As Northern Ireland’s political landscape is still dominated by parties that are essentially communal, is it properly equipped to respond to the challenges posed by the global economic crisis? Personally, I doubt it. From what I’ve seen, the response so far has been a mixture of gesture politics and incoherence. And while there may be early signs of what may aim to be a post-communal political force on the …

On neoliberal Scandinavia

Mack on July 6, 2010, 2:00 pm

| Readers 72

Tim Worstall They are classically liberal economies with lots of redistribution on top. So, if we want to be more like them we’ve got to be a classically liberal economy with lots of redistribution on top. We need the classically liberal economy in order to generate the moolah to be redistributed. Scott Summers The neoliberal revolution combines the free markets of classical liberalism with the income transfers of modern liberalism. Although this somewhat oversimplifies a complex reality, it broadly describes …