Social democracy and the populist challenge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Cuperus
Keyword(s):  
Social Democracy ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
People First ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

This chapter explores how European social democracy is threatened to be undermined and overrun by radical left-wing competitors and right-wing populist opponents. The pan-European rise of right-wing populism has had far-reaching consequences. First of all, the political and public agenda has shifted from a socioeconomic perspective to a cultural perspective. Right-wing populism is ‘culturalising’ all political issues, and is characterised by a nativist focus on putting its ‘own people first’. Second, right-wing populism portrays and demonises social democracy as forming the elite ‘which betrays ordinary people’. It also depicts social democratic parties as being simply parties for migrants. By doing so, right-wing populists deliberately seek to distance traditional social democratic voters from social democratic parties. Third, the rise of right-wing populism is increasing opportunities for right-wing or Conservative governments.

Gerd Callesen, Socialist Internationals: A Bibliography of Publications of the Social-Democratic and Socialist Internationals, 1914–2000. Bonn and Gent: Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2001. 167 pp. Free of charge.

2004 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 173-175
Author(s):  
Reiner Tosstorff
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Association ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

This is a very useful bibliographical tool produced by the efforts of the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI). This association comprises more than one hundred archives, libraries and research centers all over the world, though the vast majority are located in Europe, and not all of them have the same importance, reflecting the geographical and political unevenness of socialism's history. This particular volume aims to list all the publications of the social-democratic internationals after 1914, i.e. from the time of the political split due to the support for World War I by most social-democratic parties. This means that the left-wing, beginning with the Kienthal-Zimmerwald movement during the war and leading to the “Communist International” from 1919 on, is not represented here. But also left-wing splits from social democracy in later years, as in the 1930s with the “London Bureau” of left-wing socialist parties (and also the Bureau's predecessors) are excluded here, as they openly campaigned against social democracy. Also, a few international workers' institutions (mainly in the cultural field) that had been founded before 1914, but tried to maintain their independence after 1914 faced with the political split, are therefore not listed as well.

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 The Demobilization of Class Politics in Denmark: The Social Democratic Party’s Group-Based Appeals 1961–2004

2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mads Thau
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
General Level ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Class Politics ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

Abstract In Denmark, as in other Western European countries, the working class does not vote for social democratic parties to the same extent as before. Yet, what role did the social democratic parties themselves play in the demobilization of class politics? Building on core ideas from public opinion literature, this article differs from the focus on party policy positions in previous work and, instead, focuses on the group-based appeals of the Social Democratic Party in Denmark. Based on a quantitative content analysis of party programs between 1961 and 2004, I find that, at the general level, class-related appeals have been replaced by appeals targeting non-economic groups. At the specific level, the class-related appeals that remain have increasingly been targeting businesses at the expense of traditional left-wing groups such as wage earners, tenants and pensioners. These findings support a widespread hypothesis that party strategy was crucial in the decline of class politics, but also suggests that future work on class mobilization should adopt a group-centered perspective.

Limited Influence? The Role of the Party of European Socialists in Shaping Social Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Holmes ◽  
Simon Lightfoot
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
European Norm ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

AbstractThis article looks at the role of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in its attempts to shape social democratic parties in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) towards a West European norm. It discusses how existing views in the academic literature on the role of transnational parties are inadequate. We argue that the PES did not play a key role in encouraging the establishment and development of parties in the CEE states from the 2004 enlargement in the early stages of accession. We contend that the overall influence of party federations has been limited, and that these limitations were as much in evidence before enlargement took place as they were afterwards.

Between ideology and pragmatism: social democracy and the economic transition in Georgia 1918-21

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Stephen Jones
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
State Building ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
External Threat ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

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?

Globalisation, the breaking and re-making of social democratic citizenship

2018 ◽  
pp. 111-138
Author(s):  
Hans Schattle
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
First Century ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Base Of Support ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
Governing Institutions

Hans Schattle’s chapter explores the breaking of the postwar-era social contract across the ‘Western’ democracies alongside the dominance, since the Reagan-Thatcher era, of neoliberalism and its tenets of deregulation, privatization and unfettered trade. The legions of dislocated industrial workers who comprised an essential base of support for social democratic parties throughout the twentieth century have been relatively neglected by left and centre-left parties at the dawn of the twenty-first century as party leaders have shifted the balance of their strategies and public outreach toward the more affluent professional classes. Schattle also reckons with the sobering reality that exclusionary variants of right-wing populism have tapped the public resentment against the excesses and inequities of economic globalisation far more effectively than a renewed model of social democracy. He argues that empowerment, equity and engagement are three lodestars for the re-making of social democratic citizenship and illustrates how new voices and venues are emerging in pursuit of more auspiciously deployed governing institutions and public policies.

scholarly journals European Social Democracy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hopkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
European Country ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

European social democracy is at once a political theory, a political movement, and a set of institutions. As a political theory, European social democracy has its origins in the development of the workers’ movement, inspired by Marxist and utopian socialist ideas, in the second half of the 19th century. This movement spawned political parties with the label “social democratic,” “socialist,” or “labor” in practically every European country, and these parties mobilized industrial and agricultural workers as well as intellectuals in opposition to capitalism and political authoritarianism. Social democracy as a distinct political force emerged out of the split in the workers’ movement between revolutionary socialists and those who sought to achieve socialism through a parliamentary route. This split was formalized in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, with revolutionaries creating separate Communist parties while the rump of the workers’ movement adopted a gradualist or revisionist strategy of reforming capitalism through democratic institutions. Social democratic parties went on to establish themselves as mainstream political forces, participating in government or forming the main opposition, in almost every European country. Where social democrats were electorally successful, they were able to promote institutions such as the welfare state and corporatist bargaining in the workplace, and in some countries they brought parts of the private economy under government control. By the end of the 20th century, however, many European social democrats adopted increasingly promarket stances, arguing that globalization and technological change had rendered the classic social democratic model obsolete.

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