Good books on social democracy

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Everyone is always wiser after the event. It's commonly argued here that isn't it terrible that the Left and the labourist Right blocked In Place of Strife (which would have introduced a significant corporatist element into labour relations and would have required ballots for strike action) back in 1969, because this would have meant no Winter of Discontent and no Thatcher. Leaving aside the fact that this interpretation is almost certainly wrong,* it ignores the fact that no one is possessed with the power of hindsight and that those parts of the Labour Party who opposed In Place of Strife had very good reasons to do so.

_{*I.e. militant trade unionism in the 1970s was a response to the strange economic circumstances unleashed by the Arab Oil Embargo and was primarily led by shop stewards rather than General Secretaries. Grassroots militancy was driven by an understandable desire to protect living standards and wildcat strikes became the order of the day in some industries. Much of the industrial action during the Winter of Discontent was unofficial in nature; had formal industrial relations been incorporated even further into a corporatist framework, then that percentage would simply have increased further.}