This book traces the decline of the Labour Party's popularity and the development of the Social Democratic party. The authors have also written "Crisis in European Defence" and "The European Defence Initiative: Europe's Bid for Equality".

An examination of policy and programme in the key social democratic parties of Britain, France, Germany and Sweden since the 1970s. It situates change in the context of capitalist restructuring and shows how the radical Left initially responded to the unfolding crisis of the post-war order.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 18/20, Sciences Po Paris, Dijon, Nancy, Poitier, Menton, Havre (Campus Franco-Allemand de Nancy), course: The UK from Thatcher to Blair, language: English, abstract: The very idea of the British Labour party and other movements referring to democratic socialism as their ideal is to “pursue a socialist agenda through democratic institutions, such as free elections and parliament” . Especially in strongly majority based electoral systems such as in the United Kingdom it is difficult to win an election if one political current is represented by more than one party, thus incoherently. The incoherence within such a movement is then perceived as being a threat to the movement itself. As former Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee (1883-1967) put it “What is quite intolerable is the existence of a party within a party, with separate leadership, separate meetings, supported by its own press. It is inimical to effective action in the House. It breads suspicion and uneasiness throughout the movement.” Similar reproaches were made when in 1981 a group of former Labour politicians formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of the United Kingdom. Many democratic socialists or social democrats feared a division of the nation’s political left. It can be argued that such a division indeed occurred and led to Labour’s lowest election score in 1983 with 27.6% of votes cast, only 2.2% more than the Social Democratic Party with its liberal ally. By 1988 Labour had adapted a more moderate political outline and after a number of election defeats the majority of SDP members and MPs merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democratic Party.

In the early 1980s both the British Labour Party and the West German Social Democrats (SPD), confronted with serious internal challenges from the political left, experienced an erosion of support that resulted in the emergence of new political parties--the British Social Democratic Party and the West German Green Party. Explicitly comparative, this study presents a theoretically innovative analysis while offering a sophisticated understanding of the political confrontations between social democrats, the new left, traditional socialists, and trade unionists in both Britain and West Germany. By focusing on the established parties rather than on external developments, Koelble departs from conventional methodology regarding the fortunes of political parties. In examining the fundamental processes of decision making and coalition building within the SPD and the Labour Party, he argues that it is the organizational structures within parties that shape political results by setting limits, creating opportunities, and determining strategies.

Whereas many writers and scholars interested in the field of social democracy have focused on factors such as the role of economic globalization and electoral pressures, Ashley Lavelle explores the importance of the collapse of the post-war economic boom and lower growth rates since then. He examines how these pressures have led social democrats to embrace neo-liberal policies and become threatened by minor parties and independent politicians. Providing an original argument about the decline of social democracy, the author investigates how its decline has increased the popularity of minor parties and independents, along with the reasons for social democratic membership and electoral decline. This is an important book for scholars of social democracy and the broader themes of world politics, political parties, social movements and globalization.

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.