Social Democratic Parties and the Working Class
New Voting Patterns
Author(s)
Rennwald, Line
Collection
European Research Council (ERC); EU collectionLanguage
EnglishAbstract
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 electoral strategies.
Keywords
Electoral Politics; Political Sociology; Political History; European Politics; Comparative Politics; Open Access; social democracy; electoral behaviour; voting behaviour; working class electorate; labour movement; class mobilisation; working class party; party politics; industrial relations; social classes and stratification; electoral strategies; immigration; service workers; radical left parties; radical right parties; European politics; Elections & referenda; Sociology; Politics & government; Political science & theory; History: specific events & topics; Europe; Comparative politicsDOI
10.1007/978-3-030-46239-0Publisher
Springer NaturePublisher website
https://www.springernature.com/gp/products/booksPublication date and place
2020Grantor
Imprint
Palgrave MacmillanSeries
Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century,Classification
Elections and referenda / suffrage
Sociology
Political science and theory
Politics and government
Comparative politics