- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
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 â 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.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Front Matter
- 1. Introduction
- 2. A Reflection on Classes; a Reflection on Parties
- 3. Were Social Democratic Parties Really More Working Class in the Past?
- 4. The Class Basis of Social Democracy at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century
- 5. Partiesâ Changing Political Projects and Workersâ Political Attitudes
- 6. Renewing Social Democracy by Re-mobilising the Working Class?
- Back Matter