12/11/2010

Social Europe Journal

Gabriele Michalitsch

Solidarity and Democracy: A New

Political Economy
By

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Culminating in the current economic crisis, neoliberal restructuring has led to growing social
disintegration and increasing
exclusion from societal participation. This indicates a profound
social and a latent political crisis,
as reflected by, partly tremendous, electoral gains of the extreme right in many European
countries. Reawakening nationalisms and increasing
xenophobia, racism, Islamophobia and sexism characterise present developments in European societies and undermine their democratic fundamentals.
They challenge the present system of power and
dominance and, in this way, show the urgency of a
renewal of political economy.
The reformist perspective of renewal I will briefly
sketch out in this contribution, though remaining
within a capitalist framework, aims at comprehensive societal inclusion by minimising social divisions and hierarchies. Taking the existing order of
society as its starting point, it offers a possible path
of re-orientation for social democracy towards solidarity as a guiding principle of social order and,
simultaneously, towards a profound democratisation of society. It describes a step-by-step restructuring of the regulatory framework of capitalism
which relies on markets, but subordinates them to
politics. Economic prosperity is not regarded as a
goal of its own, but as a means to a good life, which
involves provision for material as well as non-material needs. By non-material needs I refer, first of
all, to self-determined free time, allowing to escape
the permanent economic tribunal of competition,
economic success and fear of failure, offering time
for oneself and for others time for social relations

as a prerequisite of solidarity and political engagement, and finally opening life perspectives beyond
market usability. I will focus on two closely related
and intrinsically overlapping dimensions of renewal
that seem, alongside with strict global regulation of
financial markets (Tobin tax) and reforms of institutional representation (involvement of unemployed
and precariously employed, transparency vis-a-vis
growing informalisation of decision-making), crucial to me: socio-economic policies and economic
knowledge and discourse.

Socio-Economic Policies
Alongside broad public debate on the recognition of
activities as work, a general and radical reduction
of work hours and the equal distribution of gainful employment as well as unpaid care work might
serve as starting points for a profound revision of
wage-structures by re-valuating work according
to societal necessities and for the establishment of
minimum as well as maximum income levels. A
step-by-step reduction of weekly work hours to 30
could be combined with wage adjustments based
on solidarity, implying an increase of low wages and
a decrease of wages above for example 3500 Euro.
The redistribution of work between the genders,
furthermore, involves extensive gender equality
measures with regard to gainful employment, orientation towards gender parity in all occupations and
continuous initiatives against gender stereotypes
and sexism. Obligatory quotas with respect to all
leading positions (from medium level upwards) in
enterprises, public administration and politics certainly are important instruments in this context.
Furthermore, equal access to social security, especially health care, must be guaranteed to all permanent residents. And so does some basic income
above the subsistence level not conceptualised

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12/11/2010

Social Europe Journal

Solidarity and Democracy: A New Political Economy

as an anti-poverty measure but as an element of

a much broader emancipatory project aimed at
overcoming existing dependencies and hierarchies,
opening spaces for creativity, social and political
engagement, new forms of economic exchange and,
finally, more self-determination. In order to reduce
the risks of raising gender disparities and further
marginalising women in the labour market related
to a basic income, once more, comprehensive gender
equality measures and affordable public services
with special regard to child care and care for the
elderly must be extended.

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Such measures of redistribution imply a profound

restructuring of tax systems, in particular, increasing the taxation of wealth and capital in relation to labour and a general extension of progressive
components as well as the reduction of regressive
dimensions (excise tax) of taxation are top priorities. A basic reform of public revenues (including a
financial reorganisation of social security systems
by progressive taxation instead of regressive social
insurance contributions) would also increase the
financial means available for investment in specific
integration policies, in particular with regard to access to (higher) education for marginalised groups.

Knowledge and Discourse

In this context, policies of knowledge play a key role.
Neoliberalism has led to the far-reaching privatisation of the production of knowledge. By extending
private universities and research institutes and as
a result of the growing dependence of research on
private funding, research topics were increasingly
coupled to the interests of enterprises and market
usability. This, therefore, fostered disciplinary orthodoxies marginalising alternative approaches,
in particular in politically crucial disciplines like
economics and the social sciences. If economic
knowledge is to be pluralised and if the constrictions
of the economic mainstream are to be overcome,
the plurality of approaches has to be promoted, public funding has to be raised, and the conditions
of generating knowledge have to be democratised.

Within the field of economics, this would certainly

lead to new definitions of key concepts like market,
competition, welfare or need, as well as of other
crucial political terms that had been profoundly
reinterpreted during the last decades in accordance
with neoliberal principles and integrated into a neoliberal horizon of thought.
Social democracy must be aware that knowledge is
discourse and that discourse produces meaning and
hence reality. Therefore, social democracy should
actively oppose the neoliberalisation of language
by definitions, assignments and adoptions, by naming what is de-nominated and by broaching issues
generally neglected. In this way, equality alongside
with other core social democratic concepts like solidarity, justice, security, liberty or welfare must be
regained. At the same time, they must not remain
abstract principles, but their meaning and implications for individual lives must be made clear.
Coupled with models of the self that question the
economisation of life, public discourses must politicise fears and desires by making their cultural
production and collective dimensions visible. They
must offer life perspectives beyond economic success and consumption, based on self-determination,
personal independence and solidarity and pose
the question of how to govern ourselves.


Related posts:
1. Making Participation an Essential Element
of the New Political Economy
2. French Protestors Fly the Flag for a New
Political Economy
3. Characteristics, Problems and Drivers of
Solidarity
Filed Under: Capitalism, Good Society Debate, Governance, Political Economy, Social Democracy,
Social Policy, Well-Being Tagged With: capitalism,
democratisation of society, discourse, Gabriele Mi-

http://www.social-europe.eu/2010/11/solidarity-and-democracy-a-new-political-economy/

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Social Europe Journal

12/11/2010

Solidarity and Democracy: A New Political Economy

chalitsch, islamophobia, knowledge, nationalism,

Neoliberalism, progressive taxation, racism, regulation, sexism, Social Democracy, social security
systems, Solidarity, taxation, Tobin tax, Women,
work hours
About Gabriele Michalitsch 

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Gabriele Michalitsch, a political scientist and economist, is currently working at the Department of
Political Science at Vienna University. During the
last years she was visiting professor at Corvinus
University (Budapest), Graz University (Austria), and
Yeditepe Univerity (Istanbul). From 2002-05 she was
chair of the Council of Europes group of experts
on Gender Budgeting. Main research topics: neoliberalism, political economy, feminist economics.

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