During the middle half of the twentieth century, parties of the democratic Left built comprehensive welfare states, expanded collective bargaining, and established economic rules favoring equality and stability, all in the context of representative democracy and a market economy — a political model that came to be called social democracy. But a generation earlier, before social democrats had the power to govern, they built a movement with a distinctive and creative way of thinking about and approaching politics.
Focusing on the life and work of the French writer and politician Jean Jaurès, this presentation will trace the emergence of social democracy during the years around 1900, showing how the new politics of social reform gradually differentiated itself from the revolutionary socialism and liberal republicanism of the nineteenth century. Although fondly remembered in France—where the centenary of his assassination is being observed as 2014 année Jaurès—Jaurès is little-known elsewhere. However, in his time he was among the most prominent and influential exponents of the new reformism, and his call for an “awkward politics” that accepts its own imperfection resonates today.
Speaker Geoffrey Kurtz is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, and is the author of Jean Jaurès: The Inner Life of Social Democracy, forthcoming in August 2014.
New York City, NY; NYC