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The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century

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Berman argues that most of what we think about twentieth century politics is just wrong. Instead of seeing the chief ideological battle as one between democrats and totalitarians, or between capitalists and communists, she argues that the real struggle--or, better put, a crucial yet forgotten struggle--was about how to make capitalism and democracy mutually compatible.

Free markets don't only bring growth, she points out, but also bring instability, social dislocation, and other problems--problems that mass publics demand be solved. Older ideologies like classical liberalism or orthodox Marxism were unwilling to interfere with market operations, and so they got discredited when capitalism generated crises like the Great Depression. This paved the way for a battle between newer, more activist ideologies like fascism and social democracy, which were prepared to intervene in free markets as necessary to protect what they saw as society's interests. When fascism was defeated in WWII, social democracy was left standing as the only healthy and politically viable response to the problems of modern political economy.

Her argument is basically that "we're all social democrats now," even if we don't know it or acknowledge it, because pretty much everybody accepts the idea of combining some form of market-based economy with substantial government intervention to head off problems (the welfare state, countercyclical policies, etc. etc.). Yet only social democracy, she claims, has such an approach at its theoretical core, and so only social democrats really understand what they're doing and have a consistent approach to political economy.

She backs up this argument by tracing the debates over political economy in Europe from the late 19th century onward, showing how the earlier traditions foundered, how fascism and social democracy both emerged from revisionist Marxism, and how social democracy went from being an ideological outlier to being the core of the postwar settlement and contemporary policy. The book covers several countries over nearly a century of tumultuous history, but it's somehow beautifully written and very clear nevertheless.

Guaranteed to give American readers a new perspective on modern political economy, and explain to Europeans how they came to believe what they do. Highly recommended!

I picked up this book expecting to find a comprehensive history of 20th century social democracy. But it turns out the book is an intellectual history of social democratic thought in Italy, France and Germany in the 19th century through the 1930s, with a lot of detailed discussion of pretty obscure thinkers and party congresses. It may be fascinating for historians but not for political scientists. It does not really dig into political economy or political sociology, has no data on the size of workers' parties, labor unions etc in these countries. The main problem is that it peters out just when the story gets interesting - with the construction of a social democratic Europe after 1945.

In the Primacy of Politics, Sheri Berman provides a historical overview of the development of three "third way" political systems in Europe in the early 20th century: Social Democracy, Fascism, and National Socialism (Nazism). She shows that all three systems shared something in common: an emphasis on what she terms "the primacy of politics" and the importance of communitarianism in the face of tumultuous social and economic changes. Each system appealed to all classes of society, and used nationalism to promote unity amongst the public and central economic planning to dull the rough edges of creative destruction. All were remarkably popular, yet only Social Democracy was able to maintain a commitment to human rights and universal suffrage, and avoided the irrationality and barbarity of the Fascist and Nazi regimes. With Europe once again facing troubling times, suffering from the ravages of neoliberalism and an unassimilated immigrant (see Immigrant Nations) population, Berman's suggestion to turn once again to Social Democracy could not be more timely.

This was one of those books which 'fell out of the sky' at a precise time my own thought was taking a parallel turn. As a result, I personally found this a remarkable confirmation of the validity of certain ideas I was then pursuing.
This is ostensibly a book of history, pursuing the intellectual and social roots of the social-democratic and fascist approaches to 'embedding' capitalism. In this respect, the may be seen as a companion of sorts to the brilliant magnum opus of Karl Polanyi "The Great Transformation". Like Polanyi's exceptional work, upon which, as Sheri Berman clearly acknowledges, "The Primacy of Politics" is firmly based, the work transcends history to present us with valuable insights into our own times. In the current neo-liberal era of "disembedded" markets, against which Polanyi so clearly warned us in the 1940's, politics are disparaged. As Thomas Friedman puts it, we are expected to 'don the golden straightjacket' and trade off politics (i.e. democratic control of the economy) for greater economic 'opportunity'. Like Polanyi before her, who argued that free market capitalism was a dangerous, impractical utopia that could work only on paper but never in practice, Sheri Berman makes an excellent case for the importance of politics, specifically defending the social-democratic tradition.
Although I feel, she is too quick to write off the revisionist socialist position, seeing it as a necessary step towards non-socialist social-democracy, her vision is admirable and her case persuasive. Certainly, her essentially Polanyian analysis of the history of 20th Century capitalism is, I feel, fundamentally sound and her detailed historical review of the evolution of the socialist movement into its socialist, social-democratic and even (in the form of an ideological rupture) fascist branches is both enlightening and, at points, deeply inspiring. A book to be heartily recommended to all students of 20th century history, socialism, social-democracy, the history of fascism, political-economy or political science. Worthy of becoming a classic.

Sheri Berman has written a brillant, sweeping historical review of European Politics. She offers original insights into the development of the modern global economy. Destined to become a classic in its field, this book should be mandatory reading for political historians everywhere.