ABSTRACT

This chapter scrutinizes the original strategy of Social Democracy to win the struggle for political power by gaining a majority through the ballot box. It discusses the electoral performance of Social Democratic parties since 1945. The study of electoral systems and party systems is one of the older branches of political science. Party systems have historically developed over time since the process of democratisation has been underway. Fragmentation of a party system is often seen as counter-productive to its policy performance. During the 1960s two hypotheses with respect to the effects of electoral rules-cum-party system were presented and met with wide approval: the so-called freeze thesis of Lipset and Rokkan and the catch-all thesis introduced by Kirchheimer. Between 1960 and 1990 party system volatility level has indeed increased from 7.3 to 8.4 per cent and is after 1990 10.4 per cent. Rising volatility and higher levels of vote swing seem to indicate that Social Democracy suffers from a 'stalled development'.