Symposium

The crash of communism coincides with a loss of faith and face on the part of social democracy. Where social democrats remain in power, as in Spain and Norway, they are reduced to trimming the public sector—for some good reasons and many bad. No longer the crusading champions of the one-tenth or more of the population who are jobless, they are reconciling themselves to their new role: cushions. Cushions are no small achievement—we could do with plenty more in America. Still, the decline i...