Where Now for European Social Democracy? - Policy Network

76WHERE NOW FOR EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY?internationalised, so we must be prepared to work togetherinternationally to respond them.Security as the foundation for freedomThose of a liberal political bent have not always accepted that securityand freedom go hand in hand. But I believe that establishing a stableenvironment is vital for sustaining an open pluralistic democracy andcivil society – the foundations of our freedom.I believe that history shows how difficult it is for democracy toflourish if fear and insecurity allow those of extreme views to play onthe real, as well as imagined, concerns of the population as a whole.In the past, destabilisation has led to the rise of fascism andcommunism. In the 1930s we saw it in the Spanish Second Republic –the disintegration into factional civil war. We saw it in the WeimarRepublic, as Germany gradually disintegrated. Of course, economiccollapse was fundamental in creating this instability and insecurity, butso was a failure to impose order and to ensure basic reassurance.I make these comparisons not because we are in a similar situationto the 1930s, but because we should never take for granted how adecline in security can have disastrous consequences for liberty. In ourown country, in the relatively recent past, the tragedy of the 30 yearsleading up to the Good Friday agreement, brought for us anappreciation of how vital security is to our lives and our freedom.Now, of course, we face different challenges, which seek toundermine our security and impose restrictions on our liberty. Thetrans-national reach of religion, which can be and ought to be a forcefor good, turns into a threat when combined with the rise of religiousextremism which seduces people with the appearance of absolutemoral certainty – justifying the destabilisation of existing communitiesand even offering succour to terrorism. At the same time, it offersrepression, and a perverse form of order and stability through thedenial of tolerance, democratic free speech, and the crucial checksand balances that ensure that freedom can flourish.There are also new challenges domestically. Crime and anti-socialbehaviour are not new. But they combine with new social and