Is the Left Ready to Displace the Right?

Abstract

That the economic crisis of 2007-2009 has opened space for left and broadly progressive ideas to emerge can only be regarded as a good thing. But political parties claiming an affiliation with progressive movements appear less than prepared to initiate the sorts of processes that are needed to pose a threat to neoliberal ideas. While some political economic clusters on the left have much to say about the economic downturn, some political parties of the notional left seem comatosed by thirty years of market fundamentalism. This article explores the dynamics of this situation, arguing that there can never be enough of a critique of the underlying character of neoliberalism.