La socialdemocrazia verso l’Europa: rappresentanza sociale e cultura politico-economica

Democratic Socialism Towards the EU: Social Representation and Political-Economic CultureThe present text utilizes a cross-disciplinary approach (economic history, insti-tutional history, political theories) and aims at providing a complex and long-term approach to the interpretation of the sources. The European socialist and workers’ movement ran into problems when the stagflationary crisis of the 1970s began calling the positive nature of unions’ bargaining power into doubt. However, the sources, not to mention some aspects of the history of economic theories, convey that the socialist and workers’ movement was able to foster si-gnificantly innovative responses. The latter gradually convinced the SPD, which between 1975 and 1982 had mostly resorted to mere anti-inflationary solutions. Those responses were compatible with the twofold nature of a social movement producing its own distinct recipes, and of an institutional mediator striking a balanced compromise. Since the Maastricht treaty the technocratic demands related to being an institutional mediator have gradually obscured those con-nected to the nature of social movement.