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This book explains the contrasting strategies and their electoral fortunes of social democratic parties in the major European democracies in the 1970s and 1980s. Going beyond approaches that focus on the influence of class structure and political economic institutions, The Transformation of European Social Democracy analyses the party's competitive situation in the electoral arena, the constraints and opportunities of party organisation, and the role of ideological legacies to explain the strategic choices social democratic parties have made and the electoral results they have achieved. Far from being doomed to decline, social democracy's success depends on its ability to transform its political message and to construct new electoral coalitions.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 Social structure and preference formation: opportunities for left party strategy in the 1970s and 1980s
• 2 Class structure and left party performance
• 3 Left party fortunes and the political economy
• 4 Social democratic strategy and electoral competition
• 5 Internal politics in socialist parties: preference formation, aggregation and strategic choice
• 6 The socialist discourse: political semantics and party strategy
• 7 Social democracy in decline? Analytical and normative extensions of the argument
• Bibliography

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CHOICE Review

The author, an American political scientist, examines the different electoral strategies that social democratic parties in nine European countries have adopted over the last 25 years in response to the changes in the economies and societies of Western Europe. The parties have put more emphasis on free market pragmatism, environmental protection, participatory democracy, and civil liberties in addition to their traditional policies of social security and economic redistribution. The book analyzes the influence of social structures on the political economy as well as the impact of political factors on electoral performance. The author concludes that social democratic parties are not doomed to failure but that their future and survival depends on the success of their leaders and activists in forging new electoral coalitions rather than merely depending on working-class support, and on their ability to go beyond the traditional programs and organizational structures of the parties. The book, and its large number of tables and figures, will be of professional interest to political scientists specializing in Western European party politics.