As an idea, “social democracy” has had a long history. It emerged around twelfth century in feudal Europe and expressed the spirit of an era hungry for liberty and justice. All over Europe there was a “disposition on the part of the lower classes to assert…the integrity of their traditional rights (consuetudines), to resent abuse or deprivation of them and to demand justice” (JanesThompson, 1923, “The Development of the Idea of Social Democracy and Social Justice in the Middle Ages,” American Journal of Sociology, 28 (5): 604). Ordinary people argued that the contractual nature of the relations between the nobility was valid between them and the nobility as well. The spirit was also expressed in the doctrine that an unjust government should not be obeyed. As such, it foreshadowed the modern doctrine that the government rests upon the consent of the governed (Thompson, 1923). By the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, social democracy had evolved to express the specific aspirations of many Westerners to replace capitalism with socialism. Sirvan Karimi's The Tragedy of Social Democracy is the story of the vicissitudes of these aspirations since then.

The book depicts social democracy as having gone through three phases: the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries reformist / revolutionary attempts at socialism, the 1930s to 1940s efforts aimed at stabilization of capitalism under the guise of Keynesianism, and the surrender to capitalism since the rise of neoliberalism in the 1970s. The key argument of the book is that “the seeds for the liberalization of social democracy and the progressive degeneration of its socialist principles were in fact contained within the womb of social democracy itself” (vi). It is divided into four chapters that elaborate on these ideas. Chapter 1 outlines the rise of socialism and the socialist debates that gave birth to the modern view of social democracy. The demand for social democracy is stated to have been a response to dislocations caused by industrialization and capitalist accumulation. The chapter discusses the key ideas of forerunners of socialism—Karl Marx, Noel Babeuf, and others—in this regard. Chapter 2 discusses the gradual ascendency of reformist social democracy over its revolutionary counterpart during the 1930s. Reformist social democrats, the author indicates, believed that the massive crises of capitalism had rendered it amenable to regulation, especially of the Keynesian kind. A peaceful transformation of capitalism into socialism, pace the Russian revolutionaries of 1917, seemed possible. Thus, social democracy gradually transformed itself from a revolutionary agent to an accommodative partner.

Chapter 3 describes the adaptation of social democracy to the imperatives of neoliberalism. The economic crisis of the 1970s resulted in an aggressive reassertion of neoliberal economic principles, most of which were diametrically opposed to the social democratic ones. New social developments—such as segmentation of the traditional “working class,” the rise of identity politics and globalization—helped this process. Chapter 4 aims to provide a regenerative solution for a demoralized social democratic movement. The solution suggested is basically one of uncompromising social-democratic confrontation with capitalism on a global scale. No more accommodation. The author, therefore, calls for a unification of social democrats around the world. In a way, the author replaces the Marxian call for unity of workers—“Workers of the world, unite”—with a call for unity of social democrats. The new slogan, the author seems to suggest, should be “Social democrats of the world, unite.” Karimi argues that the key task of this transnational force is to use democratic processes and ideals against capitalism, on which it depends for its survival.

The book is indeed a little shorter than it needs to be, given its challenging aim. However, what it lacks in length, it more than makes up for in clarity of argument, conciseness, sound methodology and substantive originality. Accounts provided of theoretical debates and historical events are lucid. As such, it offers a unique contribution to the discussions surrounding social democracy. Although it is very well researched, it could have benefited from additional sources on Marxist tradition and thought, such as Alvin W. Gouldner's The Two Marxisms (1980) and Karl Korsch's Marxism and Philosophy (1923). A reading of Emile Durkheim's Socialism and Saint-Simon (1958) would have also further enriched the book's discussion of French socialism in nineteenth century. A further key distinguishing characteristic of the book is its accessibility, which makes it suitable for to a variety of readers. However, those interested in political theory would particularly benefit from it.