Comparative Politics - Bernie Sanders vs Jeremy Corbyn
02 Jan 2022, 6:25 am
After a long break, here is the third part in my “Comparative Politics” series. And yes, it is the second part with “Sanders” in the title, despite Sanders now just being a Senator.
I’ve come to be rather dissatisfied with my previous post on Sanders. While I think this was a good examination of the differences between communism, socialism and social democracy, it had a few major flaws:
- While I highlighted that there isn’t a clear distinction between communism and socialism, I acted as if it is easy to distinguish between socialism and social democracy. I don’t think this is the case anymore. While on paper a social democrat supports capitalism and a socialist does not, in practice actually abolishing capitalism is very difficult and no society has ever completely socialised the means of production. The transition from social democracy to socialism is a spectrum, not a hard cut-off.
- In my efforts to be dispassionate, I said the best description of Sanders was “social democrat” because he is slightly to the right of Salvador Allende. Firstly, this ignores that Sanders is significantly to the left of most social democrats, and secondly, I’m not sure Sanders is to the right of Allende.
Sanders vs Corbyn
Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn are often compared. Both rose to prominence in 2015-2016. Both were outsiders seeking to gain a leadership position in a centre-left party in order to drive that party (and country) to the far left. Both use a populist style. Both have made favourable comments about left-wing dictators. Both ultimately failed at the ballot box and personally faded from relevancy over 2019-2020. However, both inspired a wave of young socialists who entered the national legislature, sharing many of their ideals.
Corbyn vs Sanders: the economy
Many commentators, including myself, have stated that Sanders is to the right of Corbyn on economic issues because Corbyn wanted to nationalise large parts of the British economy: energy, railways, water, even the internet. Contrastingly, Sanders only wanted to nationalise health insurance, making it illegal to provide health insurance which duplicated government-provided options.
Well, that was wrong. I think this article by CapX is excellent and required reading for anyone interested in the economic similarities and differences between Sanders and Corbyn: https://capx.co/bernie-sanders-is-far-m ... ns-labour/
Sanders wanted to nationalise a very similar set of industries to Corbyn, and where there were differences between the two, Sanders was the more left-wing.
Sanders wanted annual borrowing to be 30% of US GDP, which would have made servicing the debt extremely unaffordable. Government debt and deficits are usually red herrings, but Sanders would have gone so far as to make them issues that would genuinely impact upon people’s lives.
Sanders’ Federal Jobs Guarantee was his craziest policy and without a Corbynite parallel. Matt Bruenig did a good job highlighting the challenge this programme would face here: https://mattbruenig.medium.com/what-are ... 4f18818f1c
While there’s also good reason to be concerned about the negative impact this would have on the economy: https://www.forbes.com/sites/modeledbeh ... 566093afd0
Sanders vs Corbyn: Foreign Policy
For much of his political career, foreign policy has been Jeremy Corbyn’s primary concern. Corbyn has mostly taken fairly predictable positions. He has reflexively opposed all British or American military action since 1945, including the interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo (Corbyn initially denied the Bosnian Genocide, but has subsequently acknowledged and condemned it). He was a staunch supporter of dictators like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and even Bashir Al-Assad. Corbyn blamed Russia’s annexation of Crimea on NATO allowing the Baltics to join. He has also expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah.
Sanders, contrastingly, is not nearly as bad. He lacks Corbyn’s occupation with foreign policy, and indeed in his 2016 campaign for a long time he didn’t have an official foreign policy at all. While Sanders has made his share of foreign policy blunders - the usual support for Chavez and Castro, as well as his protectionism - he doesn’t have the zeal of Corbyn, and takes a much more balanced view on military intervention. Sanders is a critic of Putin and a supporter of NATO.
Sanders vs Corbyn: Judaism
Ah yes, a very normal thing to be talking about. Unfortunately, it is a very sharp dividing line between these two men.
Sanders, of course, is ethnically Jewish. While he has criticised the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, he also expresses pride in Israel’s continued existence. While Sanders has not always publicly condemned antisemitism, he has also not been directly caught up in any antisemitic controversies.
Contrastingly, Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite. Multiple Jewish MPs left the Labour Party during his leadership over the issue. He has defended antisemitic murals, accusing British Jews of “not understanding British irony”, and defended an imam who repeated the blood libel. Corbyn’s foreign policy shows a particular focus on Israel, including his support for Hamas and Hezbollah. The Equality and Human Rights Commission found that Labour under Corbyn was institutionally antisemitic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54731222
Antisemitism is by no means solely an issue with the left. As I have said many times on here, most antisemites are not motivated by political beliefs - it is mundane bigotry. But there is clear daylight between Sanders and Corbyn on this issue.
Legacy - Keir Starmer vs Joe Biden
Corbyn and Sanders both had two opportunities to win electoral approval for their policies. Corbyn lost two successive general elections, while Sanders lost two successive Democratic primaries.
Corbyn was succeeded as Labour leader by Keir Starmer, who promised to marry Corbyn’s left-wing economics with superficial competence and a focus on issues that mattered to people’s lives rather than foreign policy.
Similarly, in 2020 Joe Biden won the Democratic nomination for President, combining much of Sanders’ radicalism with superficial moderation.
Biden, of course, was elected President within months, and began governing as a big-spending social democrat - perhaps the most radical Democratic president since FDR, and arguably ever. There is a clear distinction between Biden and Sanders, but an equally clear one between Biden and Clinton or Obama.
Despite being elected leader on a Corbynite platform, Starmer has already moved to distance himself from Corbynomics, including rejecting the mass nationalisation Corbyn called for. It’s not at all clear to me that Starmer is leading from Ed Miliband’s left. Corbyn could credibly be called a socialist, but Starmer is more of a Third Way social democrat.
It is worth noting that Corbyn and Sanders both have dedicated followers who haven’t gone away, and many now hold elected office. For Ilhan Omar, read Zarah Sultana. For AOC, read Nadia Whittome. But there are far more self-identified socialists in the House than just the squad, and Labour’s Socialist Campaign Group now has more MPs than ever despite the number of Labour MPs declining.
Conclusion
On economic policy, Bernie Sanders is to the left of Jeremy Corbyn and essentially all of European politics. The “socialist” label, while debatable, is not entirely inappropriate- Sanders and Corbyn both want shared ownership of large parts of the economy, while Sanders supports extremely high taxes and compulsory mutualisation. Both sit on the far left of Western politics.
On foreign policy and Judaism, Sanders is much less of a crank than Corbyn. Sanders has also had much more of an impact upon policy than Corbyn.
