The Social Democratic Malaise and World Politics RIK COOLSAET The Critical Success Factors of Social Democracy in History Social democrats have lost their political momentum. They no longer seem to know what they stand for in today’s world, and all European so­cial democratic parties are suffering from the same malaise. The search for a new social project has started, though in many cases this is still happen­ing within the national context. But there is no watertight partition between domestic and interna­tional politics. That has been the experience of the socialist and social democratic movement from its very beginning. The movement developed because the international environment was conducive to it and when its political project was successful, success was always closely linked to the international context that enabled it. This is equally true today, when social democratic parties feel they have arrived at an impasse. Social democracy was born in the late nineteenth century, an era char­acterized by global competition between emerging and existing great powers, globalization, and an industrial revolution. It was this context that gave rise to this new political movement in many European coun­tries, just as 50 years previously, in the early nineteenth century, liberalism got the wind in its sails. The Industrial Revolution had led to the development of new social classes with conflicting interests. The basic values that united socialists and social democrats across the borders of the various countries, and dif­ferentiated them from their political opponents, were equality and soli­darity. Modern socialism was a response to a dual social need. It expressed moral outrage at the continuing pauperism of the vast majority of the population whilst a minority enjoyed the blessings of the Belle Époque. But it was also a rational revolt against the illogical nature of the liberal economic model which, with its periodic booms and busts, led to a waste of wealth, human energy, and self-esteem, the first victims of which were the weakest members of society. 1 1. Rémond, René(1974): Introduction à l’histoire de notre temps, Tome 2: Le XIXe siècle 1815—1914. Paris: Seuil: 133–34. ipg 1/2009 Coolsaet, The Social Democratic Malaise 107