- EUROPE: NORDIC SOCIALISMS AND SPANISH SOCIALISM

The differences between the classic socialism and new ways of understand the left principles were showed in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) that have gone through a very different process from those in Eastern Europe. Their road to socialism differs mainly in the absence of violence. The Nordic socialism – also called social democracy – consists in a system of wide social benefits for the population which is financed by the State through taxes on capital, properties, and natural resources with the aim of achieving an efficient and responsible management of public expenditure. During the process they achieved their own view of what was happening in the world and understood the need to practise full democracy in their political, economic, and social relations. Other important progress of the Nordic Socialism was the labor legislation which increases the workers’ rights and assures optimum working conditions for them. The Nordic societies are characterized for being nations with short class differences, where education and social insurance are available for everyone, as a result of the search for equality that those countries inherited from the Declaration of Men and Citizen Rights from the French Revolution.

The socialism applied in the Nordic countries maintains the main leftist principles of social justice and equality, but it was not the same in all the European nations. What was later called ‘Social Democracy’ was actually a soft Socialism that used a leftist speech to come to power, but that did not bring forth a real transformation of social relations and society, since it was developed according to capitalist structures, which maintained the bourgeois-established order. Their postulates affirm that social changes can be achieved by political reforms in the State. This trend has suffered an ideological crisis which made it refuse its Marxist origins, and it has slowly been placed in the center. Social democracy or democratic socialism is, thus, no more than liberalism with minimum regulations on productive activities imposed by a subsidy-granting State.

Spain is a very complex nation where regionalism tries to break the unity. For 38 years, the Spanish society suffered a fascist and despotic dictatorship under the rule of General Francisco Franco. After his death, the monarchy supported a democratic process. However, Socialism started in Spain before Franco, with the Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party born on May 2, 1879. Since the return of democracy in Spain, the Socialist Party has been a key participant in the national politics. The first socialist government that came to power in the Spanish history was conducted by Felipe Gonzalez, who ruled for 14 years, from 1982 to 1996. Under President Gonzalez’s leadership, the Socialist Party achieved the first absolute majority in Parliament, an election that was replicated in 1986. He based his administration on a Welfare State which included policies with strong social programs, like that for the generation of employment for young people. In 1996, President Gonzalez lost elections to Jose Maria Aznar, from Partido Popular, with barely 18 votes.

During Aznar’s government, the young politician Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero strengthened an undermined Socialist Party by opposing the Government. In the year 2004, Zapatero became the second socialist president of Spain. The first great achievement of his government was the retreat of troops from Iraq, and later the extension and advance of civil rights, equality, educational reforms, and the amendment of the territorial model to modify the statutes of the Autonomous Communities. His proposals were the center of a great social debate, such as the legalization of the homosexual marriage, the law of personal autonomy, promotion and attention to the people in situation of dependency, the law for the effective equality between women and men, the creation of the judicatures on violence against women, the new regulation on migrants, and a proposal to advance a peaceful retreat of ETA. Spanish Socialism is the historical affirmation that the left wing can come to power and be successful by means of elections and democratic practices.