This is a problem that afflicts other parties of the left as well. As Thomas Piketty has shown, leftist parties have become unmoored from their traditional working-class base and have veered toward the educated elite. The left has yet to forge an identity fit for current realities. How should they reposition themselves?
If the left is to regain political strength, it must return to its roots and once again represent the interests of working people.
The difficulty is that old strategies will not work. Unionised workers in manufacturing formed the core of support for leftist parties in the decades following World War II. They were also the foundation of the middle class. Today, manufacturing employs an ever-smaller share of workers in the US and Europe. The bulk of the workforce is in services.
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Could a far-right shift in the EU parliament change its relations with China?
Could a far-right shift in the EU parliament change its relations with China?
Redistributive policies also have problems. There is a strong argument for making tax systems more progressive and increasing tax rates for top income earners. Higher social transfers and better social insurance would help, especially in the US, where social safety nets remain weak.
But income transfers do not compensate workers for the loss of dignity and social recognition that accompany the disappearance of good jobs. Nor do they repair the breakdown in social and community life that ensues when factories close or move elsewhere.
What the left needs, then, is a credible programme of creating good, productive jobs throughout the economy – especially in lagging regions and for workers without a university education. The representative target of such a programme is not an automotive worker or steelworker, but a care or retail worker.
Moreover, labour-friendly innovation must be at the centre of the programme. Boosting wages and jobs at the same time requires organisational and technological innovations that enhance the productivity of less-educated workers. Unlike automation and other forms of labour-saving technologies, labour-friendly innovations help ordinary workers perform a greater range of more complicated tasks. Digital tools that confer expertise are an example.
Because innovation and productivity are central to this agenda, the requisite policies look like successful industrial policies of old. We could call them industrial policies for services or, better still, productive policies for labour.
They build on existing local cross-sectoral partnerships and national innovation programmes, but with a focus on labour-absorbing services and technologies that are complementary to less-educated labour. My colleagues and I have sketched variants of such programmes for the US, France and Britain.
A new left must confront head-on both the new structure of the economy and the productivity imperative. Only then will it turn into the genuine political movement of the future and a credible alternative to the far-right.