ABSTRACT
The rise of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the early 1980s kicked off a chain of electoral success for conservative and neoliberal parties which was accompanied by a paradigm shift to supply-side economics. Prominent social scientists interpreted this success as the beginning of social democracy’s irreversible decline. In 1983, Ralf Dahrendorf began a heated debate when he predicted the “end of the social democratic century.” Many observers pointed out that the objectives, strategies, and policy devices of social democratic parties were no longer suitable for present-day economic, political, and social realities (for a summary, cf. Lemke and Marks 1992; Merkel 1993: 21-57; Piven 1991). Some scholars argued that neoliberal globalization and the European single market constrained the options available to social democratic parties (Huber and Stephens 1998; Moses 1994, 1995). Others held that serious challenges emanated from demographic changes, fi scal crisis of the welfare state, postindustrialization, and value changes (Beck 1994; Inglehart 1990, 1997; Pontusson 1995). As a consequence of these develop ments, some discussed an electoral dilemma whereby the prospects of social democrats at the ballot boxes and in party competition were systematically deteriorating (Przeworski 1985; critically: Kitschelt 1994, 1999; Merkel 1993).
