The future of social democracy

Is there a future for European (and Greek) social democracy? I could provide a straightforward answer: Given their existing organizational structures, their sadly inadequate leaderships and their parochial ideological and political character, Europe's social democrats are not very likely to win back their once-prominent position in the European political system. They will, at best, be in a position to operate as political supplements for a few more decades until they are replaced by new forces that will have come into existence in a 21st century setting.

The continent, both North and South, has for years been observing the electoral demise of social democratic parties. Europe's social democrats have all suffered heavy election defeats. The latest victims were Italy's Democratic Party, who saw their popularity sink below 20 percent after losing about nine percentage points...