Eunice Goes presents paper on the Limits of Social Democracy at international conference in Genoa
Professor of Politics at Richmond, Dr Eunice Goes presented the paper ‘Portuguese Left Tests the Limits of Social Democracy’ at a conference entitled, ‘The Crisis of European Social Democracy: Causes and Consequences in an Age of Political Uncertainty’ which took place at the University of Genoa between 14-15 June.
In her paper, Dr Goes argued that the current minority socialist government led by Antonio Costa and supported by the two radical-left parties, offered interesting lessons in coalitional governance for social democrats around Europe, however it was not able to completely turn the page on the politics of austerity. For that reason, the Portuguese experiment of left-wing politics showed the limits of social democratic politics. The fiscal constraints of the European monetary union prevented the Portuguese government from implementing social democratic politics.
The two-day conference was a stimulating event which allowed for frank and insightful exchanges about social democratic parties in Europe and New Zealand from a variety of perspectives.
The conference was organised by the Political Studies Association’s Italian Politics Specialist Group, hosted by the Department of Political Science of the University of Genoa and supported by Aston University.
A shorter version of Dr Goes’s paper will be soon published in the journal Hard Times.
