5.3 Socialism Today

According to commentators, socialism is in decline. The facts seem to speak for themselves: utopian and libertarian currents are now marginal; after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, most communist regimes collapsed or adapted to the market economy; communist parties in liberal democracies had to transform, abandoning the idea of revolution and Marxist references; and social-democratic parties recorded major electoral setbacks in the 2000s and 2010s. While this decline can be seen in all the historical currents of socialism, it is noticeable those who have been predicting its death since the 1990s were wrong. The resilience of socialism lies in its formidable capacity to adapt to social issues, of which it is ultimately only a political echo. Since 1990, socialism has been constantly adapting to a society in full mutation. New divisions have emerged, such as those opposing productivism and environmentalism, or globalization and anti-globalization. Similarly, socialism is reinventing itself through issues of feminism, multiculturalism and nationalism.