ABSTRACT
The optimism was, as a powerful force, understandable and, indeed, virtually inevitable for several decades, but eventually it proved to be unjustified. The period of rapid and steady growth of socialist parties came to an end with First World War, except for the three Scandinavian parties which continued to grow fairly steadily in the interwar period. Socialist movements were a major political consequence and hence an integral aspect of industrialization. The equally consistent pattern of the end of socialist growth was similarly the result of a major social change. Even the splitting of the socialist labor movements by the Communists the Russian Revolution cannot be held responsible for it. Thus, the fact that, by appealing to non-workers, socialist parties no longer appeal to and organize workers as a class does not reduce these parties' attraction to individual workers who are, in any case, no longer class-conscious.
