The electoral vulnerability of social democratic parties in Europe

A.P.M. Krouwel, J. Reis Santos, M.T. Wall

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Despite the pervasive myth that the major political parties in Western Europe are forming powerful and stable party cartels and are closing the electoral market, the opposite seems to be occurring. The mainstream centre-left and centre-right – the social democrats and Christian democrats – have become electorally more vulnerable and seem to have mounting problems in mobilising their former core electorates. Our study examines the extent to which ‘core electorates’ of social democratic parties have declined. After an overview of the post-war electoral results of social democratic parties in comparison to other party families, we closely examine the results of the 2009 European election. PES members lost substantially compared to the previous election, and we chart which voter groups (still) belong to the core supporters of social democratic parties across Europe. We use national election studies, the European Elections Studies and data from online opt-in samples to chart the opinion structure of voters. These various data sources are used to estimate the extent to which the different social democratic parties across Europe have become electorally vulnerable.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIn the Name of Political Union. Europarties on the Rise
EditorsE. Stetter, K. Duffek, A Skrzypek
Place of PublicationPoland
PublisherFondation européenne d'études progressistes - FEPS
Pages154-174
Number of pages20
ISBN (Print)9783854640394
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Publication series

Name"Next Left" book series

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