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Globalisation, Cleavage Structures and European Social Democracy: An Alternative
View of Policy Change
Introduction
In the last decade the European left has held more political power than at any time in
its history. Indeed in 2000, only Spain amongst EU countries was not governed by the left (in
one form or another), although the centre-left lost power in Italy, France and Holland in 2001-
2. Still, the broad political and electoral position of European socialist and social democratic
parties (from now on SD parties) does not therefore justify the depressed mood in left-wing
circles across much of Europe. The European left is suffering a major crisis of confidence.
This mood has less to do with the prospects of the SD parties winning or retaining
power than with the way in which they are using it. SD governments in major European
countries seem to have abandoned redistributive policies in favour of orthodox restrictive
monetary policies, welfare retrenchment and labour market flexibilisation. Traditional
European social democracy, with its commitment to a ‘social model’ consisting of generous
welfare provision and protection of workers’ rights, is increasingly seen as inviable; instead
some European SD parties have espoused a ‘third way’ of adulterated neo-liberalism. This
paper will assess the extent to which this interpretation holds across the five biggest West
European states, and examine possible explanations for this putative rightwards drift. The
paper is divided into three sections: the first examines globalisation as an explanation for
policy change, the second assesses the strategic and electoral pressures on European SD
parties, invoking Kirchheimer’s ‘catch-all’ theory of electoral competition, and the third looks
at the changing patterns of party organisation in Western democracies, and their impact on the
prospects for Social Democratic politics.
International Economic Constraints: Globalisation and European Integration
Much has been made of a purported shift towards a global economy in which national
governments are increasingly incapable of developing economic policies with any degree of
autonomy (for an overview Hay, Watson & Wincott 1999). In a world of open markets and fast-
moving capital flows, traditional left policies are often seen as discouraging inward investment
Convention