The State of the (non) Left

I've been meaning to find the time to write about this, but Daniel over at Crooked Timber makes a lot of the same points that I wanted to make in offering a fairly classic Downsian analysis. One major extension to his thesis is that I would argue, somewhat lazily, that the wholesale move of the left to the center is not completely a function of internal dynamics and strategic electoral decisions; rather there is also an exogenous force at work as well. If I really wanted to move beyond my comfortable niche in electoral systems and comparative political behavior, I would explore globalization and its effect on domestic electoral politics. I suspect that it is more than coincidence that as globalization has increased, mainstream parties of both the left and the right have gone to the center (and, hence, turnout has declined). I teach as much in a class I designed on the effects of globalization on domestic politics and institutions -- but I do allow as how the link is suggestive, and far from firm in an empirical sense.

Of course, from a social science perspective, conceptualization would all begin with an acceptable definition of globalization (before we go off to measure and all the other fun stuff that we do). The literature on globalization, while vast, is also unsettled, and outright contradictory in places regarding a definition.

Daniel sums up the state of the left as such:

My personal view is that what we’re seeing is the end of the electoral strategy which began with Bill Clinton and which (arguably) is still being kept alive by Kevin Rudd in Australia. Basically, it’s the view that you can keep a balloon flying by constantly chucking out left-wing ballast. Which worked very well in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it does have a limited lifespan built into it. After a while, you run out of ballast to throw out and you find that the hot-air burners aren’t working any more; the traditional left-wing base of your party has switched off, the unions can’t provide blocks of support and you’re left as a more or less identikit technocrat party, largely indistinguishable from your opponents and trying to compete on the basis of more efficient provision of “public services”.

Which does resonate. David Cameron is direct about how the next election is not one of ideological revolution (which would only flame existing suspicions that the British have about the extent of the modernization of the Tories) but rather who would better manage the economy and government.

Because electing the best technocrat is really inspirational to casual voters.

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"The Left" Strikes Again!

Neo-neocon bring her mad yoosta-bee skillz to the Polanski issue:

The reaction of no small number of pundits on the Left to the Polanski case is to recommend that we let bygones be bygones.

Amusingly, the post goes on to engage in some speculation about the motives of these dastardly "pundits on the Left" without getting around to naming any of them or their their alleged specific arguments, which one would think would be necessary for her project. And the reasons for this are obvious: leaving aside Hollywood directors/writers and mediocre French "philosophers" (who don't fit the criteria anyway), the most prominent American pundit to apologize for Polanski has been...Anne Applebaum, whose politics are essentially identical neo-neo con. The one dismaying actual leftist exception to this is Katrina VandenHeuvel, who posted a one-line twitter agreeing with Applebaum's idiotic column, which she's partially walked back (albeit with a regrettable endorsement of Wanted and Desired.) And...that's it. (And, no, Richard Cohen really doesn't count.) Pretty thin reed to hang an indictment on "the Left," I'd have to say. (Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffrey's reactions would be far more representative.)

And now, the punchline:

But thank goodness the rank and file liberals at HuffPo and Salon don’t happen to agree with their journalist “betters” that Polanski should be let off the hook.

Yes, damn Salon for publishing so many apologies for Polanski! I'm afraid neo has a lot to learn about writing lazy indictments of "the Left"; it's generally a bad idea to even name sources, because it makes it embarrassingly obvious that you haven't even read the ones you're criticizing.

For rather more useful contributions on Polanski, see Lauren and little light. They don't even blame Polanski on the moral relativism of "the right!"

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