Three historic shifts -- the end of the Keynesian consensus and policy paradigm, the end of the Cold War, and globalization -- have recast political space for the center-left in the wealthy democratic societies in Europe, North America, and elsewhere. Together with long-term changes in social structures and political allegiances, this redrawing of the political landscape has compelled parties of the center-left to reconfigure their policy ideas, programs, and visions of a better future.

This conference--papers for which will appear in a volume to be published by Duke University Press--will examine responses to these historic challenges by bringing together writers and researchers with historical and regional expertise in order to assess this transformation and its impact across a variety of settings and policy realms. Proceeding from an explicitly transatlantic perspective, conference participants will explore similarities and differences in responses to these common challenges and propose explanations for both.

The conference will be a working meeting, with participants and critics working to test arguments and render the papers and the planned volume more coherent. The success of the conference will depend in large part on the ability of participants to focus the discussion on texts with which we all are familiar. Authors have therefore been asked to submit papers prior to the meeting. These will be made available on the conference website, accessible via the website of the Center for European Studies. The plan of the meeting itself is to have authors offer very brief introductions to their essays. This will be followed by a discussion involving all conference participants but initiated by a designated commentator. Authors, paper titles and commentators are listed here.

Conference organizers: Jim Cronin, George Ross, Jim Shoch