The Right gains ground partly because of what the Left does within limits.

Evidence

I have looked exclusively at some political-ideological dimensions of the emergence of the radical Right, not to evoke wonder at its extent, but to try to identify what is specific to it, what marks its difference from other variants which have flourished since the war. The first is the complex but interlocked relationship of the Right to the fortunes and fate of social democracy when the latter takes power in a period of economic recession, and tries to provide a solution “within certain limits.” It is always the case that the Right is what it is partly because of what the Left is. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1130

Categorization

• XREF: This conditional relationship between Left failure-by-limits and Right rise resonates with the same dynamic traced in Hall’s earlier essays on Thatcherism and the crisis of social democracy. — connects to: The left’s defeat may have been a slow disintegration rather than a battle — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 276; The 2008 crisis strengthened rather than weakened the political right — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 8; Both left and right fusions with neoliberalism produce exclusive rather than inclusive solidarity. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 32 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: What specific ‘limits’ of social-democratic governance does Hall have in mind as the mechanism that gifts ground to the Right?