Money, Markets, and the State: Social Democratic Economic Policies since 1918. By Ton  Notermans. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Edited by, Peter  Lange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. xix+302. $59.95.Common Destiny: A Comparative History of the Dutch, French, and German Social Democratic Parties, 1945–1969. By Dietrich  Orlow. New York: Berghahn, 2000. Pp. xi+370.

The Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-21) was a novel experiment in social democracy in the most unexpected time and place. Georgia was rural and mostly illiterate, and its leaders faced the complex tasks of nation and state building in conditions of external threat, internal conflict, and global economic depression. The first democratically elected social democratic government in Europe, it confronted the inevitable tensions between market principles and socialist ideals. The new government’s economic policies reflected the dilemmas and contradictions faced by all social democratic parties in a capitalist environment. The new leaders created a mixed economy, framed by social democratic goals, but driven by pragmatism. Economic pioneers, how successful were they in creating a sustainable economic system and a model for other European socialists to follow?

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The Rise and Fall of Social Democracy, 1918–2017

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055420000234 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 114 (3) ◽

pp. 928-939 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

GIACOMO BENEDETTO ◽

SIMON HIX ◽

NICOLA MASTROROCCO

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Manufacturing Sector ◽

Industrial Workers ◽

Social Democratic ◽

History Of ◽

Election Observation ◽

Election Results ◽

Democratic Parties ◽

Electoral Performance ◽

Social Democratic Parties

We describe the electoral history of one of Europe’s most successful party families over the past 100 years in 31 countries. With a unique and newly collected dataset of national election results and a large number of economic and social variables measured for each country-election observation, we find that two main factors drive the electoral performance of social democratic parties: public-sector spending and the size of the manufacturing sector. Our findings suggest that most of the fall in support for social democratic parties in recent years is correlated with a decline in the number of industrial workers as well as a reduction in the propensity of social democratic parties’ core supporters (industrial workers and public-sector employees) to vote for them.

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Ideological Party Cohesion in Macro-comparative Politics: The Nordic Social Democratic Parties from a Comparative Perspective

Scandinavian Political Studies ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9477.2012.00287.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 35 (3) ◽

pp. 222-245 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Detlef Jahn ◽

Christoph Oberst

Keyword(s):

Comparative Politics ◽

Comparative Perspective ◽

Social Democratic ◽

Party Cohesion ◽

Democratic Parties ◽

Social Democratic Parties

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Money, Markets, and the State: Social Democratic Policies since 1918. By Ton Notermans. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 312p. $59.95.

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055401682017 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 95 (1) ◽

pp. 244-245

Author(s):

Carles Boix

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

World War I ◽

The Netherlands ◽

Historical Data ◽

World War ◽

Money Markets ◽

Social Democratic ◽

Cambridge University ◽

Universal Suffrage ◽

The Social

Notermans has written a bold and ambitious book in which he purports to explain the conditions under which social democratic policies, and therefore the social democratic project, have been successful in modern democracies. The book, which relies heavily but not exclusively on historical data, examines the ebb and flow of social democratic domi- nance in five countries-Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Britain-since roughly the introduction of (male) universal suffrage after World War I.

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