Globalisation, the ‘Third Way’ and European Social Democracy:
An Alternative View of Policy Change
Jonathan Hopkin
Department of Political Science and International Studies
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
J.R.## email not listed ##
Abstract
It is now widely held that left governments in Europe have abandoned traditional Social
Democratic policies in favour of a ‘third way’ of adulterated neo-liberalism. This paper assesses
the extent to which this interpretation holds across the five largest West European states, and
examines possible explanations for this putative rightwards drift, and the varying extent to
which different parties have adopted a ‘third way’ discourse. Three types of explanations are
considered: those that stress the role of international economic constraints, those that emphasise
the changing electoral opportunity structures resulting from socio-economic change, and those
that emphasise the changing organisational features of contemporary political parties. It is
concluded that ideological change in Social Democratic parties can be usefully interpreted in
terms of the ways in which socio-economic changes are filtered through the longstanding
political cleavages which structure party competition in Western Europe. This perspective
suggests that the historical importance of the religious cleavage is a key factor influencing
Social Democratic parties’ willingness to embrace conservative economic policies as a response
to economic and electoral constraints.
Paper for presentation at APSA 2003 annual meeting, Philadelphia, 27-31 August.
Page 1 of 21 
Convention