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Class Structure and Social Democratic Party Strategy

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  • Kitschelt, Herbert

Abstract

Arguments that infer the inevitable decline of European socialist and social democratic parties from the changing class structures of advanced capitalist societies have two major flaws. Firstly, they do not adequately reconstruct the link between citizens' experiences in markets, work organizations and the sphere of social reproduction, on the one hand, and the formation of political consciousness, on the other. Secondly, such propositions do not model the strategic terrain of party competition and intra-party decision making on which socialist politicians devise voter appeals. This article will first present a sketch of an alternative theory of preference formation that does not rely on conventional class categories and then analyse party competition as faced by social democrats under advanced capitalism. It will then test ‘naive’ and ‘sophisticated’ theories of class politics and account for their shortcomings in terms of the alternative theoretical framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Kitschelt, Herbert, 1993. "Class Structure and Social Democratic Party Strategy," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 299-337, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:23:y:1993:i:03:p:299-337_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Busemeyer, Marius R., 2007. "Social democrats and education spending: A refined perspective on supply-side strategies," MPIfG Working Paper 07/2, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    2. Carlo V. Fiorio & Simon Mohun & Roberto Veneziani, 2013. "Social Democracy and Distributive Conflict in the UK, 1950-2010," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2013-06, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    3. Daniel Oesch, 2022. "Contemporary Class Analysis," JRC Working Papers on Social Classes in the Digital Age 2022-01, Joint Research Centre.
    4. Bruno Amable, 2014. "The unsolved contradictions of the modernists. Economic policy expectations and political crisis in France 1978-2012," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00973926, HAL.
    5. Oliver Lah, 2017. "Continuity and Change: Dealing with Political Volatility to Advance Climate Change Mitigation Strategies—Examples from the Transport Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-13, June.

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