management policies, the rise of trade unions and collective bar-
gaining, the expansion of the welfare state, the power and prestige of
international socialism, and the rise of an autonomous and affirmative
global South were all signs that the progressive vision of the world
was influential and indeed ascendant. From 1945 to 1980, the right
was often on the defensive. It resisted state intervention and redistri-
bution, sought to contain socialism and communism, and battled to
uphold the legitimacy and efficiency of market mechanisms to regulate
international relations.
In a world defined by American hegemony and often ruled by
conservative governments, in the 1950s notably, the right was cer-
tainly not powerless. In many countries, the policies that were actually
implemented were decidedly conservative. The United States, for
instance, adopted a “commercial” variant of Keynesianism and built
its welfare regime around an extensive use of private social benefits.^83
Still, very often the left seemed to propose and the right to resist. The
public ethos of the time was progressive. In the 1960s and 1970s, the
demand for equality spread broadly to include women, blacks, native
peoples, various ethnic groups, and sexual minorities. More educated
and more prosperous than ever before, and more numerous as well,
the youth of advanced democracies challenged most established rules
and institutions, in the name of equality and freedom. Previously rock-
solid standards regarding sexual behavior and family relations, and
cultural norms in general, were cast aside one after the other. The tide,
however, was about to turn. At the end of the 1970s, the political
climate began to change.
(^83) Theda Skocpol, “America’s Incomplete Welfare State: The Limits of New Deal
Reforms and the Origins of the Present Crisis,” in Martin Rein, Gøsta Esping-
Andersen, and Lee Rainwater (eds.),Stagnation and Renewal in Social Policy:
The Rise and Fall of Policy Regimes, Armonk, NY, M. E. Sharpe, 1987,
pp. 42–45; Jacob S. Hacker,The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public
and Private Social Benefits in the United States, Cambridge University Press,
2002, pp. 7–20.
136 Left and Right in Global Politics