Download full text
(99.79Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-55601-8
Exports for your reference manager
The Crisis of German Social Democracy Revisited
[journal article]
Abstract This article analyses the dramatic electoral decline of German social democracy since 2003. It argues that the SPD’s decision, under the leadership of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, to engage in welfare state retrenchment and labour market deregulation during the ‘Hartz reforms’ (2003-05) demor... view more
This article analyses the dramatic electoral decline of German social democracy since 2003. It argues that the SPD’s decision, under the leadership of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, to engage in welfare state retrenchment and labour market deregulation during the ‘Hartz reforms’ (2003-05) demoralised the SPD electorate. The SPD subsequently lost half of its former electoral coalition, namely blue-collar voters and socially disadvantaged groups, while efforts to gain access to centrist and middle-class voters have failed to produce any compensating gains. While the SPD’s decline from a large to a mid-sized party is part of a larger transformation of the German party system, no political recovery is possible for social democracy without a fundamental change of strategy, namely efforts to regain former voters by offering credible social welfare and redistributive policies. The SPD will not be able to delegate such policies in a ‘convoy model’ to other parties, such as the Left Party; nor will a modest ‘correction’ of the earlier course, such as has been attempted since 2009 under the leadership of current party chairman Sigmar Gabriel, be sufficient to recover lost electoral ground.... view less
Keywords
Federal Republic of Germany; party system; social democracy; Social Democratic Party of Germany; election result; social policy; labor market policy; deregulation; Hartz-Reform; political left; voting behavior; change of government; party politics
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 230-239
Journal
The Political Quarterly, 88 (2017) 2
ISSN
1467-923X
Status
Published Version; reviewed