THE POLITICAL-ECONOMY OF SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC ECONOMIC-POLICIES - THE PASOK EXPERIMENT IN GREECE

This article looks at the political economy of social democratic econo mic policies. It focuses on those policies that seek to extend democra cy to the social and economic spheres and examines why such experiment s have met with limited success in the past. It compares external cons traints on the viability of such policies, such as the freedom of capi tal movements and globalization, with internal constraints. Since soci al democratic policies rely on promoting coordination and cooperation between economic agents and groups, it is argued that an important, bu t often neglected, internal constraint is the extent to which social d emocracy can draw upon, or, if they are lacking, foster those institut ions within society, which pro,note coordination and cooperation. The paper examines in detail the social democratic experience of PASOK in Greece and draws some conclusions for the wider relevance of the futur e viability of social democratic economic policies.