French Socialism in a Global Era

Ben Clift is Professor of Political Economy, and an Associate Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, Warwick University, UK.Ben Clift is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, UK.

• 1. The Crisis of Social Democracy; 2. Globalization and Social Democracy; 3. The Historical and Institutional Context of French Socialism; 4. Organisational Change in the Parti Socialiste in the 1990s; 5. Ideological Redefinition in the PS; 6. The Changing Political Economy of French Socialism - Neo-Keynesianism Resurgent; 7. The Policy Profile of the Jospin Government; 8. The Political Economy of French Electoral Strategy; Conclusion; Bibliography.

French Socialism in a Global Era is ambitious both theoretically and empirically. Clift demonstrates a very sure theoretical and empirical touch and an impressive capacity to synthesise various literatures and apply them to different facets of Socialist Party experience. The book is rigorously researched, and also very wide-ranging. Clift demonstrates convincingly how internal party dynamics (organisational, intellectual, institutional) can mediate the effect of exogenous and endogenous changes, and very convincingly challenges some of the central presuppositions of the end of social democracy and end of history schools.