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Review of Mudge’s Leftism Reinvented

By Jeff Stilley, University of Missouri

In 1934, Karl Polanyi wrote, “Either capitalism or democracy must go. Fascism is the solution of the deadlock which leaves capitalism untouched. The other solution is socialism. Capitalism goes, democracy remains.” Polanyi’s socialism is a topic of debate among scholars, but he clearly hoped social democratic reforms would transcend the double movement to permanently subordinate markets to democracy. This hope never panned out. Explaining why socialist parties moved first to Keynesianism, then to neoliberalism, is the subject of a remarkable new book from sociologist Stephanie Mudge.