Social democracy is not the ideology we need in an economic downturn: even if the Left can sell social democracy to the UK electorate, it will have a hard time selling it to global markets

In our continuing series on social democracy, Lord Norton rejects Pete Redford’s idea that social democracy is the best way forward for the Left. But the appeal of social democracy is tarnished for three reasons: it rests on an inaccurate perception of the Conservatives as slavishly devoted to neo-liberalism; it focuses too strongly on the state’s ability to solve people’s problems, and it is wholly inadequate in dealing with globalised markets.