Which Left: Detecting the Progressive Identity in Europe in the Midst of a Crisis (Ποια Αριστερα; Aνιχνευοντας την Προοδευτικη Tαυτοτητα στην Ευρωπη της Κρισης) by George Sotirelis (review)

This book is a thought experiment in which George Sotirelis, professor of constitutional law at the University of Athens, considers the political space occupied by the Left, broadly defined, and ponders the circumstances that could create an environment conducive to the reemergence of a social democracy in which social justice and welfare priorities would be core values.¹ In the author’s view, this progressive space is increasingly under attack by the forces of globalization and homo economicus (maximization of production, consumption, and profit), often referred to as neoliberalism. He believes that the recent and ongoing economic difficulties in Greece are connected to the decline of social democracy in Europe and elsewhere. Be that as it may, the book asks significant questions about the future of politics across Europe.

Sotirelis poses and attempts to answer four basic questions: Why Left? What kind of Left? How much Left? And finally, Only Left? He seems to take his cues from the political events unfolding in Greece since the country’s economic crisis became full blown in 2010. These eventually gave rise to the anti-austerity, leftist SYRIZA-led coalition government. Clearly, the author feels that Greece is not an isolated phenomenon but indicative of a troubling worldwide trend to deal with the effects of neoliberalism. He appears to aim his thoughts toward not only the upper-middle strata of the Greek society and the SYRIZA coalition government but also societies and governments facing similar problems and/or espousing similar points of view.

In the first chapter, he takes up the question, “Why Left?” He answers, “It is a matter of principle.” By this Sotirelis means that anyone who sees human welfare as the primary building block of economic activity is a person of the Left. By contrast, those who value homo economicus and unstable market speculation are excluded from his broad conceptualization of what is the Left. In the author’s opinion, the European Left is largely responsible for the “most important developments in the European political and legal civilization in Europe” and beyond. Some of the more insidious problems facing the world today—such as the oligopolistic or even monopolistic attitudes in the global economy, the decentralization of the credit industry, the emergence of powerful and extralegal private authorities, and the private interests increasingly directing international organizations—are traceable to the retreat of the Left that began about three decades ago. In fact, he asserts that neoliberalism is directly responsible for the emergence of the so-called New World Order, whose negative economic and social consequences, such as unemployment and income inequality, threaten Europe’s future, especially the future of Greece and other Mediterranean countries. In Sotirelis’s mind, the prolongation and severity of the consequences of the economic slump have prompted some Greek intellectuals to ponder the utility of the country’s partnership in Europe and its overall position in the world.

The second chapter asks “What Kind of Left?” Although the answer seems to be variable, there are several groups the author is willing to exclude from the start. These include Stalinists, Maoists, and other authoritarian expressions of the Left from the past. In addition, Sotirelis dismisses groups willing to resort to violence to make their political point. This is a very broad category, ranging from “Manicheanism to naive leftism to stubborn dogmatism and uncritical political backwardness.” The reader is left to wonder about the size of these groups and their effect on European and other societies. Yet, surprisingly enough, he seems to exclude and reject the “soft” socialists of the Third Way and other centrists, for he questions the authenticity of their commitment to social democracy. Sotirelis’s Left would include the social democrats whose first order of business is to harness the global economy in a structural regime that would ensure the difference between the public and the private...