Social Democratic Parties and the Working Class : New Voting Patterns (Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century)

Rennwald, Line

Springer Nature Switzerland AG（2020/07発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 111 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9783030462383
• DDC分類 320.531094

Full Description

This open access book carefully explores the relationship between social democracy and its working-class electorate in Western Europe. Relying on different indicators, it demonstrates an important transformation in the class basis of social democracy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the working-class vote is strongly fragmented and social democratic parties face competition on multiple fronts for their core electorate - and not only from radical right parties. Starting from a reflection on 'working-class parties' and using a sophisticated class schema, the book paints a nuanced and diversified picture of the trajectory of social democracy that goes beyond a simple shift from working-class to middle-class parties. Following a detailed description, the book reviews possible explanations of workers' new voting patterns and emphasizes the crucial changes in parties' ideologies. It closes with a discussion on the role of the working class in social democracy's future electoralstrategies.

Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: A reflection on classes; a reflection on parties.- Chapter 3: Were social democratic parties really more working-class in the past?.- Chapter 4: The class basis of social democracy at the beginning of the twenty-first century.- Chapter 5: Parties' changing political projects and workers' political attitudes.- Chapter 6: Renewing social democracy by re-mobilising the working class.