Social democracy and the challenge of European Union

Book abstract:

This book assesses the changing relationship between social democracy and the policy agenda of the European Union (EU) at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The argument of the book is primarily organised around the efforts by social democratic party leaders to project their interests collectively into European Union policymaking.

The book is split into two parts. Part one, The challenge of European Union, is concerned with presenting the multidimensional nature of the impact of European integration on political parties. In chapter two in this section, the threat to party relevance is analysed. This is presented within the wider context of the effect of European integration upon national sovereignty and the erosion of the distinctiveness of the left-right division in competitive politics. Chapter three narrows the analysis of the impact of European integration on party relevance to social democratic parties. In this discussion, the prime location of the national state in social democratic ideology is treated as a central factor in the disparate nature of social democratic parties' debate and response to European integration. In part two, Adaptation and innovation by Social Democratic Parties, social democratic responses to the growth in European level policymaking are explored. Chapter four explores change in selected social democratic parties regarding their perspective on the utility of the EU for achieving national policy goals. Chapter five introduces the concept of party network by arguing that once a notion of building a European-level partisan operation breaks free of national organisational ideal-types, and instead adapts to the unique structures and dynamics of the EU, then new formats for policy influence may be developed. Chapter six focuses on output of the Party of European Socialists' (PES) efforts to influence the EU agenda. Finally, in Chapter seven, the author considers how the current state of social democratic co-ordination may be viewed as the early stages of a truly European social democratic presence and what this development means more generally in the study of the interaction between national and European politics.

Robert Ladrech is lecturer in the School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment, at Keele University.

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