Reviving social-democracy

As usual Branco Milanovic has a useful blog, this time reviewing a book about the state of the left.  Here the blog entry and here a link to the book.

A two by two table may be useful to summarize some of the arguments being debates and two central debates today:

	Pro-Cosmpolitan	Anti-Cosmopolitan
Pro state-led significant (re)distribution	Traditional social-democracy	Some of the European far-right????
Anti-state-led significant (re)distribution	Progressive neoliberals (‘Third Way a la Clinton, Blair)	Trump

The common argument today is that the coalition between the financial elite and social progressives resulted in policies that promoted cultural equality (recognizing the importance of gender equality, the problem of race, sexual freedoms, etc) while protecting the economic interests of the (financial) elite.  This coalition created a clear group of losers (both culturally but also economically): white men with manufacturing and semi-skilled jobs.    These voters "responded" by starting a cultural counter-revolution that is best represented by Trump.

Several questions emerge here:

a. Does Obama truly fit this description?  What about the Nordic social-democracy (which is losing votes nearly as fast as the left in other countries)?

b. Why did social-democratic parties adopt this kind of agenda?  Was it a result of political calculations?  Selfishness?  Ideology?

c. Most importantly, can't we really not move to the pro-Cosmopolitan, pro-redistribution cell?  Why not?  It is true that there are significant economic constraints towards a model with better employment, particularly in Europe.  Yet improving and even expanding welfare provision is by no means impossible and would benefit more than 50% of the population.  So I still wonder if a narrative around the importance of a sharing economy with redistribution and more state-led innovation is not possible.  It probably just needs better political entrepreneurs, no?

My main concern (which Milanovic has expressed very well in other blogs) is what should be social-democracy's position regarding migration?  An anti-migration position is incoherent and, in my view, unethical.  Yet an open borders position that fails to recognize clear social and economic tensions is also naive... maybe if resolving this problem and improving the broader narrative about a protected future that celebrates all human rights is possible and the key challenge.