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

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.

What Explains the Electoral Crisis of Social Democracy? A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…The positive message is that the electoral crisis is to some extent the result of the neoliberalization of social democracy. Social democrats' recent adoption of more leftist economic positions and the slightly growing policy divergence between them and centre-right parties thus offer some signs of hope for social democracy (Manwaring and Holloway 2022). However, to permanently halt the downward trend, social democrats have to present a clear alternative to today's ailing neoliberalism.…”

“…Giddens 1998). However, empirical studies show that the programmes of social democratic parties have become increasingly permeated by the neoliberal ethos of competitiveness since the 1980s (Amable 2011; Manwaring and Holloway 2022; Mudge 2011). The result is the emergence of a ‘social democratic variant of neo-liberalism’ (Hall 2003), ‘neoliberalized social democracy’ (Mudge 2018) or ‘market social democracy’ (Nachtwey 2013).…”

Making the rich pay? Social democracy and wealth taxation in Europe in the aftermath of the great financial crisis

“…While the literature on tax competition mainly focuses on structural constraints, other scholars have highlighted the ideological and organizational turn within the mainstream Left as the driver of shrinking partisan differences. The mainstream Leftand in particular social democratic partieshave witnessed a deep transformation over the last decades, with many parties embracing a more market-friendly policy agenda (Keman, 2013;Mudge, 2018;Manwaring and Holloway, 2022). Whereas this 'third way turn' is best documented for the area of social policy, it also implied major tax cutsin particular for the affluentin many countries.…”

The Shifting Relationship between Post-War Capitalism and Democracy (TheGovernment and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture, 2021)

“…But these developments are also beginning to influence the economic platforms of mainstream parties in terms that may presage major shifts in economic policy, and ultimately changes in the growth regime as new policies induce changes in firm strategies. After decades of moving the allocation of resources to markets, many parties on both the centre-left and centre-right are beginning to support more assertive state intervention (Manwaring and Holloway 2021). One manifestation is increasing enthusiasm for Green New Dealsseen as cleavage-bridging programmes that appeal to both middle-class proponents of environmental protection and working people for whom such programmes can create jobs (Bloomfield and Steward 2020;Gustafson et al 2019).…”