ABSTRACT

All countries under review are affected by the challenges to social democratic politics mentioned in Chapter 2. Did these challenges lead to a convergence in the actions of social democratic governments? Can social democratic policies since the mid-1990s really be characterized by the term “third way?” We address these questions by comparing actual governmental policies in the six countries. There is merit to the suggestion that the metaphor of the “third way” is illusive and intangible (Bonoli 2004; Barrientos and Powell 2004). The levels of discourse, values, goals, and political means need to be distinguished. Individual parties may propagate the same values and goals but employ different means to reach them. In what follows, we set out to compare the political measures of social democratic governing parties, and the outcomes of their fi scal, employment and social policies. Then we address the question of whether or not the observed policy patterns are accompanied by a revision of traditional social democratic goals and means. For this purpose, a typology of social democratic parties is developed. In a third and fi nal step of the comparative analysis, the explanatory power of the national framework for political action of social democratic parties is evaluated.