Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:50:26.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A New Wave of Social Democracy? Policy Change across the Social Democratic Party Family, 1970s–2010s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

Rob Manwaring Open the ORCID record for Rob Manwaring [Opens in a new window]  and
Josh Holloway
Rob Manwaring*
Affiliation:
College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Josh Holloway
Affiliation:
College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Social democracy is in a state of change and flux, and the electoral fortunes of many centre-left political parties are poor. This article offers an analysis of the current trajectory of the centre left, by detailing a systematic mapping of policy change across the family of social democratic political parties. Many of the parties, especially in the 1990s, took a ‘third way’ turn, or a shift to what has been called the ‘new social democracy’. Yet, the ‘third way’ label is a poor descriptor to capture the changing policy profile and dynamics of the family of mainstream centre-left political parties. In Adam Przeworski's view, there have been four main waves of social democracy. We employ the ‘wave’ frame to examine if there is an emergent, fifth, breaking wave of social democracy. Overall, we find that social democratic parties have moved beyond the ‘third way’; they are shifting leftwards, but they are a new kind of ‘left’ from that of previous decades.

Keywords

social democracylabour partiescentre leftmanifestopolicy changethird way
Type
Research Note
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 171 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Government and Opposition Limited

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abou-Chadi, T and Wagner, M (2020) Electoral Fortunes of Social Democratic Parties: Do Second Dimension Positions Matter? Journal of European Public Policy 27(2), 246–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2019.1701532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arndt, C (2013) The Electoral Consequences of Third Way Welfare State Reforms: Social Democracy's Transformation and its Political Costs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, D (2009) The Political Economy of European Social Democracy: A Critical Realist Approach. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, D et al. (eds) (2014) European Social Democracy During the Global Economic Crisis. Manchester: Manchester University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bale, T et al. (2010) If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from Populist Radical Right in Western Europe. Political Studies 58, 410–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2009.00783.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benedetto, G, Hix, S and Mastrorocco, N (2020) The Rise and Fall of Social Democracy, 1918–2017. American Political Science Review, published early online, June. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benoit, K and Laver, M (2007) Estimating Party Policy Positions: Comparing Expert Surveys and Hand-coded Content Analysis. Electoral Studies 26(1), 90–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2006.04.008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berman, S (2006) The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonoli, G and Powell, M (2002) Third Ways in Europe? Social Policy and Society 1(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746402001082.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Budge, I and Meyer, T (2013) Understanding and Validating the Left–Right Scale (RILE). In Volkens, A et al. (eds), Mapping Policy Preferences from Texts III: Statistical Solutions for Manifesto Analysts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 85–106.Google Scholar
Budge, I et al. (2001) Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments, 1945–1998. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brenton, S (2016) The Politics of Budgetary Surplus. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenton, S and Pierre, J (2017). Budget Surplus Goal Experiments in Australia and Sweden. New Political Economy 22(5), 557–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2017.1270924.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F and Mitchell, D (1993) Worlds of Welfare and Families of Nations. In Castles, F (ed.), Families of Nations: Patterns of Public Policy in Western Democracies. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing, pp. 94–112.Google Scholar
Curran, G (2001) The Third Way and Ecological Modernisation. Contemporary Politics 7(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569770124221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, RJ and McAllister, I (2015) Random Walk or Planned Excursion? Continuity and Change in the Left–Right Positions of Political Parties. Comparative Political Studies 48(6), 759–787. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414014558257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolezal, M et al. (2018) Beyond Salience and Position Taking: How Political Parties Communicate Through Their Manifestos. Party Politics 24(3), 240–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068816678893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G (1985) Politics Against Markets: The Social Democratic Road to Power. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, T (2003) After the New Social Democracy: Social Welfare for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franzmann, S and Kaiser, A (2006) Locating Political Parties in Policy Space: A Reanalysis of Party Manifesto Data. Party Politics 12(2), 163–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068806061336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamble, A and Wright, T (eds) (1999) The New Social Democracy. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gemenis, K (2013) What to Do (and Not to Do) with the Comparative Manifestos Project Data. Political Studies 61(S1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A (1998) The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Geyer, R et al. (eds) (1999) Globalization, Europeanization and the End of Scandinavian Social Democracy? London: Springer.Google Scholar
Gray, J (1996) After Social Democracy: Politics, Capitalism and the Common Life. London: Demos.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, C and van Kersbergen, K (2002) The Politics of the Third Way: The Transformation of Social Democracy in Denmark and the Netherlands. Party Politics 8(5), 507–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068802008005001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, C (2006) What's Left? The Death of Social Democracy. Quarterly Essay 21. Melbourne: Black Inc.Google Scholar
Huber, E and Stephens, J (1998) Internationalization and the Social Democratic Model: Crisis and Future Prospects. Comparative Political Studies 31(3), 353–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414098031003004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C (2019) Social Democracy and the Crisis of Equality: Australian Social Democracy in a Changing World. Singapore: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C (2020) Coronavirus Highlights the Painful Political Truth About Health Inequality: Is Social Democracy the Answer? The Conversation 10 April. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-highlights-the-painful-political-truth-about-health-inequality-is-social-democracy-the-answer-135543.Google Scholar
Judt, T (2009) What is Living and What is Dead in Social Democracy? New York Review of Books 56(20), 86.Google Scholar
Keating, M and McCrone, D (eds) (2013) The Crisis of Social Democracy in Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Keman, H (2017) Social Democracy: A Comparative Account of the Left-wing Party Family. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H (1994) The Transformation of European Social Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klitgaard, M (2007) Why Are They Doing It? Social Democracy and Market-Oriented Welfare State Reforms. West European Politics 30(1), 172–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380601019753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koelble, T (1991) The Left Unravelled: Social Democracy and the New Left Challenge in Britain and West Germany. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Krouwel, A (2003) Otto Kirchheimer and the Catch-All Party. West European Politics 26(2), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380512331341091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavelle, A (2008) The Death of Social Democracy: Political Consequences in the 21st Century. London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Laver, M (2001) Position and Salience in the Policies of Political Actors. In Laver M (ed.), Estimating the Policy Position of Political Actors. London: Routledge, pp. 66–75.Google Scholar
Laver, M and Budge, I (eds) (1992) Party Policy and Government Coalitions. Basingstoke: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laycock, D and Erickson, L (eds) (2015) Reviving Social Democracy: The Near Death and Surprising Rise of the Federal NDP. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Manwaring, R and Kennedy, P (2017) Why the Left Loses: The Decline of the Centre-Left in Comparative Perspective. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Maravall, J-M (2016) Demands on Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martell, L (2013) Social Democracy after the Crisis in Europe and the Crisis of Social Democracy. Renewal – A Journal of Social Democracy 21(4), 31–38.Google Scholar
McDonald, MD and Budge, I (2014) Getting it (Approximately) Right (and Center and Left!): Reliability and Uncertainty Estimates for the Comparative Manifesto Data. Electoral Studies 35, 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2014.04.017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McRobbie, A (2000) Feminism and the Third Way. Feminist Review 64(Spring), 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1080%2F014177800338990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merkel, W et al. (2008) Social Democracy in Power: The Capacity to Reform. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moene, KO and Wallerstein, M (2008) Social Democracy as a Development Strategy. In Austen-Smith, D et al. (eds), Selected Works of Michael Wallerstein: The Political Economy of Inequality, Unions and Social Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 443–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moschonas, G (2002) In the Name of Social Democracy: The Great Transformation, 1945 to the Present. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Mudge, S (2011) What's Left of Leftism? Neoliberal Politics in Western Party Systems, 1945–2004. Social Science History 35(3), 337–380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0145553200011573.Google Scholar
Mudge, S (2018) Leftism Reinvented: Western Parties from Socialism to Neoliberalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Oudenampsen, M (2020) The Riddle of the Missing Feathers: Rise and Decline of the Dutch Third Way. European Politics and Society, published early online, March. https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2020.1739198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, C (2001) Hard Choices: Social Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Pontusson, J (1992) At the End of the Third Road: Swedish Social Democracy in Crisis. Politics & Society 20(3), 305–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/003232929202000304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pontusson, J (2011) Once Again a Model: Nordic Social Democracy in a Globalized World. In Cronin, J et al. (eds), What's Left of the Left: Democrats and Social in Challenging Times. Durham and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Przeworski, A (2001) How Many Ways Can be Third? In Glyn, A (ed.), Social Democracy in Neoliberal Times: The Left and Economic Policy Since 1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 312–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, B (2011) Dead and Alive in Social Democracy. Inroads 28, 118–125.Google Scholar
Rothstein, B and Steinmo, S (2013) Social Democracy in Crisis? What Crisis? In Keating, M and McCrone, D (eds), The Crisis of Social Democracy in Europe. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 87–106.Google Scholar
Ryner, M (1999) Neoliberal Globalization and the Crisis of Swedish Social Democracy. Economic and Industrial Democracy 20(1), 39–79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X99201003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryner, M (2010) An Obituary for the Third Way: The Financial Crisis and Social Democracy in Europe. Political Quarterly 81(4), 554–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-923X.2010.02118.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartori, G (1976) Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sassoon, D (2013) One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century. London: IB Tauris.Google Scholar
Scharpf, F (1991) Crisis and Choice in European Social Democracy. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Scheuer, S (2011) Union Membership Variation in Europe: A Ten-Country Comparative Analysis. European Journal of Industrial Relations 17(1), 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680110392739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulman, J (2015) Neoliberal Labour Governments and the Union Response: The Politics of the End of Labourism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vampa, D (2020) Back in the Game? European Centre-Left Politics at the Start of the Covid-19 Crisis. Working paper. Birmingham: Aston University. http://www.academia.edu/download/63658933/COVID19_socialdemocracy.pdf.Google Scholar
Volkens, A (2004) Policy Changes of the European Social Democrats. In Bonoli, G and Powell, M (eds), Social Democratic Party Policies in Contemporary Europe. London: Routledge, pp. 21–42.Google Scholar
Volkens, A (2007) Strengths and Weaknesses of Approaches to Measuring Policy Positions of Parties. Electoral Studies 26(1), 108–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2006.04.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volkens, A et al. (2019) The Manifesto Data Collection. Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Version 2019. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). https://doi.org/10.25522/manifesto.mpds.2019b.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Manwaring and Holloway supplementary material

Appendices A-C
Download Manwaring and Holloway supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 344.9 KB