The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
Italian PM Matteo Renzi speaks during the panel on "Transformational Leadership" in Davos, January, 2015. Michel Euler / Press Association. All rights reserved.No doubt remains: the European left is in serious crisis. The compromise between capitalism and the state that emerged in the wake of the Second World War is definitively over, and as the world has globalized, the role of the state has undergone radical change. This is the central reason for the left’s current predicament. Globalized capitalism brought with it the structural erosion of state resources, leaving the European left between a rock and a hard place, faced with a choice between two equally unsatisfactory strategies.
The loss of state investment power
Let us begin by stating the obvious: the investments we make today set our course for the future. The left’s vocation is to orient collective investment towards the least advantaged in our societies by making choices that correct or complement private investments. To do this requires a state that is able to invest according to goals other than the ones selected by the market.
