Socialist Register 1985-1986 Preface

Abstract

This twenty second issue of the Socialist Register is a 'double' volume, spanning the years 1985/6. The reason for this is that we have long wanted the Register to appear at the beginning rather than at the end of the year; and the only way we could do this was by 'losing' a year. However, we hope that the volume makes up, both in interest and in bulk, for the loss. Marcel Liebman became a third co-editor of the Register in 1984; and Leo Panitch has now become a fourth one. It is very unlikely that we shall go on adding co-editors at this rate. Leo Panitch has contributed to the Register in the past, is the author of Industrial Militancy and Social Democracy and other writings, and is Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto. Like its 1984 predecessor, this volume is mostly concerned with a single theme, namely 'Social Democracy and After'. What we present in this issue is a critical survey of social democracy in theory and practice, and an exploration of what, in socialist terms, lies beyond it. Social democracy has under various labels been the overwhelmingly predominant experience of Western labour movements, and retains that predominance today. The contributors to this volume are all highly critical of that experience but are well aware that the critique of social democracy, however necessary, is not enough, and that what is also badly needed is a careful exploration of what else is possible by way of socialist change in advanced capitalist countries with capitalist-democratic regimes. It is both to critique and exploration that the 1985/6 Socialist Register is intended to make a contribution.