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Social Democracy and Racial/Ethnic Equality

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Abstract

This chapter builds on chapter one’s argument that initially in both Australia and internationally, social democracy’s mission was largely conceived in terms of improving the pay and conditions of a white, heterosexual, male breadwinner head of household. As late as the nineteen forties, Australian Labor governments were both strong supporters of the White Australia policy and of limited entitlements for Australia’s Indigenous peoples. However, this chapter argues that they were not alone and other social democratic parties internationally also have a questionable record when it comes to issues of racial and ethnic inclusion. In the Australian case, Labor governments began to tackle racial and ethnic inequality from the nineteen seventies on and remain formally committed to policies of racial equality. However, Labor has sometimes attempted to incorporate issues of race and ethnicity within their pre-existing policy frameworks, including those influenced by neoliberalism, and has sometimes underestimated the influence of ongoing cultural discrimination. Furthermore, refugee and immigration issues have become an issue for social democracy again internationally. While the chapter predominantly focuses on Australian material, examples are also given from other countries internationally, including Sweden, Britain, Germany and Denmark, in order to illustrate the broader relevance of the arguments being made.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    As noted in chapter one, ‘race’ is acknowledged to be a constructed identity. The term ‘ethnicity’ is commonly used in Australian political discourse to refer to cultural differences, including amongst those constructed as ‘white’ and commonly amongst those who are not of Anglo-Celtic ethnic descent.

  2. 2.

    For a historical account of Australian immigration policy see Jupp (2002).

  3. 3.

    Chifley in due course supported self-government for Asian countries, (see e.g. Chifley 1951, pp. 372–81). Nonetheless, he had made it clear that the solution to improving the standard of living of Asian people lay in improving the economic and social conditions of life in those countries, rather than in allowing people from those countries to migrate to Australia. Chifley claimed that he did not consider whites to be superior to Asians. However, he also justified the forced repatriation of Asians who had been offered sanctuary in Australia during the war (Chifley 1949b).

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Correspondence to Carol Johnson .

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© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Johnson, C. (2019). Social Democracy and Racial/Ethnic Equality. In: Social Democracy and the Crisis of Equality. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6299-6_2

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