ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns how the main political traditions have prescribed the role of the state and how they have shaped it when in government since the late 1970s. It examines the major political families and party groupings rather than individual parties. The chapter concentrates on the communalities and similarities of the parties of each major ideological strand rather than focusing on those aspects which make each party distinctive. It covers six countries, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, and Austria. The chapter deals with the development of the conservative and Christian democratic parties. In the 1970s and 1980s Christian democratic and conservative parties adopted or 'rediscovered' neo-liberal economic ideas and since then have departed from the 'social democratic consensus'. The chapter analyses the changes in the perception of the proper role of the state that social democratic parties went through. The programmatic innovation can be summarised under three headings: review of state activities, marketisation and Europeanisation.
