The most fundamental fault line in contemporary politics runs through the centre of its dominant right-wing alliance, that between neoliberals and conservatives, and sets two different kinds of political power against each other. It is a conflict that leaves the political left to one side, with the ironic consequence that what should be a moment of major opportunity for social democrats to break that alliance is in fact having the opposite consequence. The fault line is that between the economic globalization fostered by neoliberalism, representing the extraordinary power of business wealth, and the xenophobic form of conservatism, representing the power of mass fear and hatred.

It is in relation to these that the political left is weak. It has become routine for debates about “the state of the Left” to bewail a lack of ideas to challenge neoliberalism, but in his contribution to this book David Coates shows how in fact there is an abundance of ideas and practical policies coming from left of centre; the weakness lies in a mobilizing capacity strong enough to confront its opponents. I would go further and argue that, so important are centre-left policies, these opponents cannot avoid embracing aspects of them. Nowhere in the democratic world, and particularly in Europe, have neoliberal governments been able completely to destroy public health and education services, public pensions, publicly funded infrastructure, regulation of business behaviour and consumer rights, or taxation that has some redistributive effect. On the conservative right, leaders who are building their power base on hostility to immigrants, the European Union (EU) and foreigners in general, such as Marine Le Pen in France, Theresa May in the UK and the Danish People’s Party, feel a need to reinforce their position by rejecting the neoliberal approach to social policy. Social democratic policies live on and even revive, despite the growing weakness of the parties to which they belong.

In this essay, I shall concentrate on constellations of power in the electoral and other mass mobilization arenas, but always bearing in mind that this is by no means the only and probably no longer the most important place where political power is wielded.