Over the past decade, the European political landscape has undergone major upheavals, with the collapse of certain parties, the emergence of new players and a fragmentation of the political offering. The consequences? An increase in abstention, greater electoral volatility and more unpredictable results. Against this backdrop, the social-democratic parties, emblems of the mass parties of the second half of the twentieth century now in difficulty, have found themselves facing competition from new players (new center parties, far-right formations, and left-wing populist parties).
This project aims to answer the following question: How have "old school " social-democratic parties adapted in the face of new competition? Did they seek to respond to the ideological and organizational innovations of the new parties?
If we look back 10 years, we see that social democratic parties suffered marked electoral setbacks in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Yet, despite the initial success of emerging movements, and against some predictions, the traditional center-left parties in the countries studied did not collapse. On the contrary, in Spain and Italy, these parties have recovered. In France, the PS remains resilient and a key player in the political game. In Belgium, despite a gradual erosion, the Socialist family remains at a high electoral level in both Flanders and Wallonia.
Through this project, the idea is to provide a key to understanding this social-democratic resilience. The aim is to study the reasons for the strategic adaptations of these players, taking into account various factors that vary between the countries studied: identity and weight of the new competing parties, specific history of the social-democratic party, electoral system (from more proportional to more majoritarian), etc. Moreover, by studying social democracy, this project aims to provide keys to understanding the transformations of other traditional political families (Christian Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, etc.). One could imagine the same project in mirror form with, as its theme, the adaptations of center-right parties to the rise of the far right, for example.
The project is based on qualitative methods - analysis of discourse, documents, archives and interviews with political players - to understand how social-democratic players interpreted and reacted to the context, and trace the processes that led them to adapt their ideology or structure, sometimes at the cost of bitter internal struggles.
