Don Arthur has a thoughtful response to my piece on the resilience of social democracy. He criticises the kind of anthropomorphism which sees “capitalism” as an intentional agent, and writes:

“In contrast to the radical left, social democrats never went in for wholesale state planning. By and large they were happy to create an environment in which both businesses and individuals could pursue their own goals. It meant owning things like hospitals, transport, utilities and other basic infrastructure, but it didn’t extend to radically transforming society. This is why the collapse of the socialist vision (aka ‘the triumph of capitalism’) has not destabilized social democrats the way it has old Marxists and new leftists.

What damaged social democracy was the collapse of Keynesianism which came with the oil shocks and stagflation of the 1970s. But that’s another story…”

I plan to take up this story soon.