The Postwar Transformation of European Social Democracy

This paper aims neither at a comparative documentary study of successive party programs adopted by the governing, or potentially governing, social democratic parties of Northern and Central Europe, nor at a history, however sketchy, of the policies pursued by each of them in the last three decades. It aims, instead, to present what appear to be the most significant trends in their outlook and practice. Illustrations will be chiefly taken from the development of the German SPD, because it is m...