scholarly journals The missing left? Economic crisis and the programmatic response of social democratic parties in Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Bremer
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

How have social democratic parties responded to the recent economic crisis? For many observers, the Great Recession and the prevalence of austerity in response to it have contributed to a crisis of social democracy in Europe. This article examines the programmatic response of social democratic parties to this crisis in 11 Western European countries. It uses an original data set that records the salience that parties attribute to different issues and the positions that they adopt with regard to these issues during electoral campaigns and compares the platforms of social democratic parties before and after 2008. For this purpose, the article disentangles economic issues into three different categories and shows that this is necessary in order to understand party competition during the Great Recession: while social democratic parties shifted to the left with regard to issues relating to welfare and economic liberalism, they largely accepted the need for budgetary rigour and austerity policies.

The French Parti socialiste (2010-16): from office to crisis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Di Francesco-Mayot
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
High Unemployment ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the French Socialist Party (Parti socialiste, PS), which is one of the least successful of the major European social democratic parties. It focuses on the period between the 2008 global financial crisis until the end of François Hollande's presidency in 2017. The crisis of the PS is twofold: first, a political crisis that is revealed by the divisive nature of the Party's internal courants (factions). Whereas the factions initially contributed to the PS's internal democracy, over the past two decades they have significantly affected the PS's cohesiveness and ability to effectively develop and implement necessary policies. And second, an economic crisis that is exemplified by the PS's inability to adapt to its external and internal environments, such as the neoliberal imperatives of the EU, unprecedented high unemployment, and increasing insecurity.

Firm-Provided Training During the Great Recession

2014 ◽  
Vol 234 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz Bellmann ◽  
Hans-Dieter Gerner ◽  
Ute Leber
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Further Training ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Apprenticeship Training ◽  
Training Activities ◽  
The Impact

SummaryEven though the 2008/09 economic crisis had only minor employment effects on the German labor market, it might have affected firms’ further training and apprenticeship training behavior. From a theoretical point of view, the impact of the business cycle on firms’ training behaviour is ambiguous. There are reasons for an increase of training during a downturn (e.g., declining opportunity costs of training, fewer exit options for trained workers) as well as arguments for a decrease of training (e.g., uncertain future benefits of training). The existing empirical evidence on the relationship between training and economic downturns is relatively scarce. In particular, we are not aware of any empirical study investigating the effects of the most recent crisis on firms’ training activities in Germany. Our paper aims to fill this gap by using data from the IAB Establishment Panel, a representative German panel data set with annual information about almost 16,000 establishments. In particular, we analyzed the provision and the intensity of further training and apprenticeship training in firms which were affected by the crisis and in those which were not. Our empirical investigation revealed that the establishments, irrespective of whether or not they were hit by the economic crisis, decreased their further training and apprenticeship training efforts in 2009 compared to 2008. However, establishments directly affected by the great recession tended to reduce their training activities more often than those which were not affected. Furthermore, we found much stronger variations in the development of firms’ further training activities than in the development of their apprenticeship training.

Consistency versus Responsiveness

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam F. Cayton
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Position Change ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Exogenous Shock ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Political Risks ◽  
Policy Representation

While democratic theory suggests that representatives should be willing to adjust their issue positions to adapt to new circumstances, politicians face serious political risks from “flip flopping.” How do members of Congress balance these risks? Using an original data set of district economic conditions and opinion from 2007 to 2010 and sets of repeated roll call votes, I leverage the exogenous shock of the Great Recession to explain position change on three major economic policies. I find that position change occurs in response to the constituency on final passage votes, but that partisan pressures exert greater influence, especially on procedural votes. This novel test of responsiveness has implications for the nature of policy representation and the mechanisms behind aggregate responsiveness.

Social Democracy and the Welfare State in Context: The Conditioning Effect of Institutional Legacies and Party Competition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silja Häusermann
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Institutional Legacies ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

The chapter links shifts in the social democratic electorate to the positions of social democratic parties on new and old welfare state policies and explains the programmatic responsiveness of social democratic parties to their new constituency with institutional policy legacies and party competition. The chapter demonstrates that shifts to middle-class electoral constituencies are correlated with shifts toward a progressive position on the socio-cultural dimension of political competition, and an increased support for social investment policies on the economic dimension. Importantly, however, the new middle-class electorate does not withdraw social democrats’ support for traditional welfare policies. Both institutional legacies and party competition moderate the link between these shifts in the electorate and party positions.

Party Competition and the Resilience of Corporatism

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette Anthonsen ◽  
Johannes Lindvall
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

AbstractThis article argues that after the Golden Age of capitalism, corporatist methods of policy-making have come to depend on specific modes of party competition. In contrast to previous studies of corporatism, which have argued that corporatism depends on strong social democratic parties, this article suggests that the competition between well-defined left-wing and right-wing ‘blocs’ has become detrimental to corporatism. In countries with mixed governments or traditions of power-sharing, on the other hand, corporatism thrives. These conclusions are based on a comparison of four traditionally corporatist countries – Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland – from the early 1970s to the late 1990s.

scholarly journals Transition to first birth during the Great Recession: the case of Greece

Genus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalampos Dantis ◽  
Ester Lucia Rizzi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Economic Uncertainty ◽  
First Birth ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
First Child ◽  
Before And After

Abstract In this study, we examine the effects of the economic uncertainty of partners on the transition to first birth in Greece before and after the onset of the recent economic crisis. After selecting a sample of childless couples, we applied a random effects model to EU-SILC data for the period 2005–2013. Few studies have focused on the association between economic uncertainty and fertility in Greece considering characteristics of both partners. Even fewer studies have examined panel data in the context of the recent crisis. Our findings show that Greek couples in which both partners are employed, have a high income, or are highly educated are in a more favourable position to have a first child. During the Greek Great Recession, corresponding in our study to the period 2010–2013, the odds of having a first child decreased to half the odds in the 2005–2009 period. The recession period also modified the effect of couples’ characteristics on first childbearing. During the economic crisis, male breadwinner couples were particularly penalized in their transition to have a first child. Surprisingly, couples with at least one temporary worker, usually the woman, were encouraged to have their first child. Implications in terms of gender and social inequality are discussed in the concluding section, and selection processes at play are also discussed. Keywords Fertility, Economic uncertainty, Economic recession, Greece

scholarly journals The ideational foundations of social democratic austerity in the context of the great recession

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Bremer ◽  
Sean McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Social Investment ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Elite Interviews ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
Apparent Conflict

AbstractThe ‘austerity settlement’ has come to define the post-crisis European political economy. Since 2010, parties from across Europe’s political mainstream have implemented austerity and despite the apparent conflict with the interests of their traditional constituents, even social democratic parties have acquiesced to this settlement. However, within the existing literature ‘social democratic austerity’ is currently under-theorized as it is assumed to involve a rather straightforward adaptation of social democrats to neo- and/or ordoliberal ideas. Utilizing rich and original evidence from over 60 elite interviews with key social democratic stakeholders in France, Germany and the UK, this article contests this view. It demonstrates instead that a distinct set of ideas based on New Keynesianism, supply-side economics, and the social investment paradigm provide the ideational foundations for social democratic austerity post-crisis. Understanding this, it is argued, is critical in order to fully appreciate how and why austerity has become dominant in post-crisis Europe.

scholarly journals Underemployment and well-being in the UK before and after the Great Recession

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Heyes ◽  
Mark Tomlinson ◽  
Adam Whitworth
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
The Uk

Since the start of the economic crisis in 2008 there has been widespread concern with changes in the level and composition of unemployment. The phenomenon of underemployment has, however, received markedly less attention, although it too increased in extent following the start of the crisis. This article considers the consequences of underemployment for the subjective well-being of UK employees. Drawing on data from the 2006 and 2012 Employment and Skills Surveys, the article assesses how the Great Recession affected relationships between different dimensions of underemployment and well-being. The findings demonstrate that the negative well-being consequences of workers’ dissatisfaction with opportunities to make use of their abilities became more substantial, as did the consequences of being ‘hours constrained’ and having an unsatisfactory workload. The article also shows that the economic crisis had a negative impact on the well-being of employees who work very long hours.

Financial Crises and the Public Discourse on Financial Elites

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef Cassis ◽  
Giuseppe Telesca
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Codes Of Conduct ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Late Twentieth

Why were elite bankers and financiers demoted from ‘masters’ to ‘servants’ of society after the Great Depression, a crisis to which they contributed only marginally? Why do they seem to have got away with the recent crisis, in spite of their palpable responsibilities in triggering the Great Recession? This chapter provides an analysis of the differences between the bankers of the Great Depression and their colleagues of the late twentieth/early twenty-first century—regarding their position within, and attitude towards the firm, work culture, mental models, and codes of conduct—complemented with a scrutiny of the public discourse on bankers and financiers before and after the two crises. The authors argue that the (relative) mildness of the Great Recession, compared to the Great Depression, has contributed to preserve elite bankers’ and financiers’ status, income, wealth, and influence. Yet, the long-term consequences of their loss of reputational capital are difficult to assess.

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