Changing or Disappearing? The Left around the World Today.

In our times of democratic backsliding, rise of populism, and strengthening authoritarianism, it became crucial to focus back on the state of the Left around the world. In not-so-ancient times the Left was not only a pillar of the democracies but also an important part of the political forces that directly or indirectly helped to enhance social, economic and political situation across the world. The Left is nowadays in difficulties and seems to be on the way to disappearing… In each country and each region around the world, the context may be different, but the observation is mostly the same.
What happened? Has the Left changed into something far away from the ancient values and objectives (and turned into a conservative or populist movement)? Has it only disappeared, giving way to new forces better prepared in our globalized world, where individual interests and ways are the only game in town? Is this defeat definitive or are there new ways to reboot the Left? Can the left still defend the losers of "poly-crises" occurring in modern societies, or does it become a defender of societal minorities? How do it cope with the contradiction between the priority of social struggles versus societal struggles?
The aim of this panel is to discuss how and why is the democratic Left so weak today, not only in Europe or broadly in the Western democracies, but even in the global South. We invite researchers to propose both case study papers (party or country) and comparative ones.