jacobinmag | Since the late 1970s political parties all over
the world have embraced a politics of free markets, privatization, and
financialization. While promising freedom, this political project —
typically referred to as neoliberalism — has brought record levels of
economic inequality and significant democratic retrenchment,
particularly in the advanced capitalist world.
Scholars often explain this shift by pointing to
the victory of the New Right — personified by figures like Ronald
Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. But a new book by sociologist Stephanie
Mudge tells a different story.
In Leftism Reinvented: Western Parties from Socialism to Neoliberalism, Mudge
looks at left parties in advanced capitalist countries over the last
century and shows how the experts aligned with those parties pushed them
in the direction of spin doctors and markets. In the process, left
parties’ ability to represent the interests of their own working-class
constituencies was eroded — and ordinary people were shut out of the
halls of power.
Political organizer and socialist activist Chase
Burghgrave recently spoke with Mudge about her new book, the role of
experts in democratic societies, and whether a more vibrant, egalitarian
politics is possible.
