Sun Xixiang and Xue Junqiang: The Evolution of Values in Contemporary European Left-wing Parties
Generally speaking, the values of a political party reflect deep-seated changes in the existing socioeconomic, political, and cultural structures at an ideological level, while their content is manifested through the party's views on politics, class, the state, and society. Since the 20th century, the shifting international landscape of capitalist society and changes in social structures have provided the practical social foundation upon which the social critiques of European left-wing parties have unfolded.
The values of contemporary European left-wing parties uphold the intellectual tradition of European social democracy and have gradually gestated through a critique of mainstream capitalist values centered on liberalism. For over a century, driven by indignation at the inequalities of capitalist society and sympathy for those subjected to unjust treatment (primarily including the working class, women, ethnic minorities, and people of color), contemporary European left-wing parties and their theorists have committed themselves to establishing—through democratic means—an ideal society that thoroughly realizes liberty, equality, and solidarity. They believe that socialism is neither an a priori fixed historical schema nor an inevitable product of economic development, but rather a process of human pursuit toward the idealistic values of liberty, equality, and solidarity.
Unlike classical liberalism and neoliberalism, the values of European left-wing parties view liberty, equality, and solidarity as an organic whole where the components constrain and complement one another. Liberty signifies the exertion of individual potential and self-actualization; it is the starting point of the value system, while equality is the premise of liberty, and solidarity is the condition for realizing equal liberty. Briefly stated, a society of liberty, equality, and solidarity is an ideal society where everyone enjoys equal liberty based on mutual aid and solidarity. A sense of social justice, a spirit of solidarity and mutual aid, democratic conviction, and the capacity for social critique constitute the core concepts of the values of contemporary European left-wing parties.
Seeking Social Transformation
The adjustment of values in contemporary European left-wing parties is closely related to changes in capitalist economic and political structures; shifts in values are embedded within the economic and class structures of society. Since World War II, in order to respond to value conflicts and social problems caused by changes in the capitalist mode of production and class structure, contemporary European left-wing parties have considered economic strategies by continuously diluting traditional ideology and demands for class struggle. They seek a reconciliation between the state and the market, placing social reform, the critique of capitalism, and the issue of the state system within the international community at the center of their reflections. Attempting to seek social transformation within the harmonious symbiosis and the fissures between capital and the state has determined the plurality and ambiguity of the ideological and value positions of contemporary European left-wing parties.
Since 1945, contemporary European left-wing parties have attempted to construct a "State-Capital-Labor" trinity framework for social transformation—the so-called "social capitalism" or "state capitalism" strategy—which continues to influence their economic and political strategies today. From the perspective of concrete operations, on the one hand, they utilize a powerful capital economy, continuously emphasizing the stimulus of market competition mechanisms for social welfare; on the other hand, they use the power of the state to intervene in market regulation. On this basis, they reach a "greatest common denominator" of interests among capital, the state, and labor, thereby consolidating their own political positions.
Contemporary European left-wing parties adhere to ethical pragmatism, which involves forming close interest-coordination mechanisms between parties, trade unions, and employers, discarding traditional ideological baggage to satisfy the political need for gaining public support. Some contemporary European left-wing parties generally profess faith in Marxism and the collective ownership of the means of production only in terms of value ideals and form, while seeking political democracy and economic prosperity within the capitalist framework has become their core concern for survival.
From the perspective of global capitalist development, contemporary European left-wing parties seek capitalist reform and social transformation within the framework of the relationship between the state, capital, and labor. The deep-seated issues reflected behind this concern the mechanisms and strategies for the transition from capitalism to socialism in the era of globalization. In shaping their ideology, contemporary European left-wing parties must reconstruct a value consensus and reshape their political outlook. Socialist parties operating within the scope of Western capitalist representative democracy must respond to the new political language emerging from working-class struggles (or feminist movements and radical student movements).
Groping for Alternative Solutions to Capitalism
Since the end of the Cold War, in a context where the development of the world socialist movement has been at a low ebb, left-wing parties in capitalist countries have continuously improved their policy stances in the face of new situations and problems arising from capitalist development. In exposing and criticizing the various defects of the capitalist system, they hope to realize the value ideals of socialist equality and solidarity.
The reality is that left-wing parties in capitalist countries are not a monolithic whole. There are clear differences between left-wing parties in Western developed countries and those in developing nations. Among the group of Western developed countries, even left-wing parties within the same country show distinct differences in policy proposals and implementation strategies. However, looking at the development of world economic and political trends, left-wing parties in capitalist countries—whether in developed or developing nations, and whether radical or moderate—all manifest historical commonalties that reflect the characteristics of the capitalist era in their policy stances and general orientations. These commonalties form their basic policy proposals and exert a huge influence on the development and changes of the world economic and political patterns, as well as on the economic and social development of various countries.
The US financial crisis that erupted in 2008 and the world economic shocks it triggered opened a historical opportunity to replace and transcend the capitalist system. Contemporary European left-wing parties have continuously reflected on the neoliberal economic system, exploring alternative solutions within a post-neoliberal framework. In the social public sphere, they call for alternative solutions to capitalism, intending to find new schemes that promote economic prosperity and safeguard social justice, viewing this effort as the destiny and future of European left-wing parties. For instance, to defend the interests of the laboring class and promote the realization of social equality, figures such as Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband of the British Labour Party and Kevin Kühnert of the Social Democratic Party of Germany are exploring new solutions using traditional means such as nationalization and Keynesianism, thereby consolidating the economic foundation of their ideological identity.
Where is the New Historical Subject for Criticizing Capitalism?
Generally speaking, the mood of current European political debate is much calmer; workers and labor movements are no longer keen on resolving problems through armed struggle. This presents a problem that contemporary European left-wing parties must face. If the working class in capitalist society has fragmented, and the class structure no longer has the working class as its sole subject, where will the practical force for contemporary European left-wing parties to resist capitalism come from? Where lies the possibility for them to criticize capitalism and carry out labor movements? How can they bridge the class fragmentation caused by capitalist development and shape a value consensus for pluralistic subjects? This refers to the new changes in the subject force of the struggle against capitalism in the "post-materialist era" [1], which constitutes a New Era task that contemporary European left-wing parties must urgently face as they carry out critiques of capitalism and labor movements.
As the "distinctive" subjects of class and socialist revolutionary movements, the working class was formed alongside capitalism and was endowed with class consciousness and the historical mission to overthrow capitalism. This social group, linked by a shared consciousness, was mobilized by socialists through class struggle. However, in contemporary Western capitalist societies, class identity is increasingly questioned by the identity politics raised by new social movements. The revolutionary strategy of contemporary European left-wing parties, centered on the working class as the core subject, cannot effectively respond to the pluralistic value concerns of European new social movements. These groups advocate for breaking the illusion of the working class as the sole revolutionary subject; they loathe authoritarianism and bureaucratism, question the legitimacy of representative systems, and always maintain sympathy for the oppressed—all of which cause contemporary European left-wing partisans to suffer within the vast divide between concepts and reality.
In their view, traditional European left-wing parties ignored the pluralistic subjects and cultural foundations of social movements; the working class's control over its own living conditions did not increase with political democracy, the expansion of market power, and material prosperity. The emergence of new social movements and labor movements in the "post-materialist era" has collectively prompted contemporary European left-wing parties to continuously adjust their practical strategies for social reform and the critique of neoliberalism. Meanwhile, to integrate the value consensus of different social subjects, they have begun to permeate specific economic formulations and political planning with the values advocated by class politics and identity politics. They no longer emphasize the working class as the sole revolutionary identity and have begun to accept the market as the best mechanism for generating wealth. As demands have expanded, democracy is no longer simply based on class principles but on the principle of individual rights. At the same time, contemporary European left-wing parties still uphold in their party programs the traditional socialist ideal of ultimately eliminating capitalism, defending a social order of liberty, equality, and justice, and establishing a society controlled by associated producers.
Facing the downward trend of world economic development since 2008, the rise of populism, and the decline of the "Third Way" [2], figures in left-wing parties such as the British Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party advocate for criticizing neoliberalism and returning to the left-wing traditions of social democracy. They seek to enhance social welfare through means such as collective control, public ownership, and expanded public investment, thereby maintaining traditional left-wing values. The social inequality caused by the global expansion of capital and the internal laws of capital accumulation has become the "economic institutional genetic code" for the continuous development and change of European left-wing ideologies. In recent years, European left-wing parties have lost part of their traditional working-class support due to their tacit acceptance of neoliberalism. Especially since the 1990s, the transformation of industrial structures in European countries like the UK and Germany has given rise to a "new working class" different from the traditional one. Faced with such a severe situation, contemporary European left-wing parties must bridge the internal divisions between the traditional working class and the new working class of the 21st century to consolidate their class base. Essentially, however, the changes in the class structure and labor-capital contradictions of contemporary capitalism remain the social root of the ideological evolution of contemporary European left-wing parties.