Abstract
Many political observers in Western democratic countries equate socialism with statism. From the late 1970s onwards, numerous socialist elites and experts have helped to nurture this widespread belief. This chapter aims to dispel this reductive, indeed incorrect, account of the relationship between West European socialism and the idea, form, and use of the state. It challenges what remains a dominant interpretation of the left’s propensity for state intervention in political and journalistic debates. It promotes a comparative and transnational approach over the longue durée, which is likely to produce a better understanding of West European socialism. In so doing, it also casts an original light on the history of the contemporary state in Europe.
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Notes
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The authors warmly thank Jenny Andersson, Alain Chatriot, Michele Di Donato, and Gerassimos Moschonas for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this text.
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Our italics.
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Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder’s Manifesto, “Europe: The Third Way/Die Neue Mitte”, June 8, 1999, http://miroirs.ironie.org/socialisme/www.psinfo.net/dossiers/gauche/3voie/blairvo.html [Accessed September 12, 2018].
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Fulla, M., Lazar, M. (2020). European Socialists and the State: A Comparative and Transnational Approach. In: Fulla, M., Lazar, M. (eds) European Socialists and the State in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41540-2_1
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