ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the unraveling of the relationship between the Labour Party and the workers whose interests the party pledged to protect, right when Labour became increasingly institutionalized within the British political landscape. Trade unions have long been integral to the functions of the Labour Party, and in return, Labour has long stood for unions’ interests. This unspoken ‘social contract’ eventually became an explicit Social Contract in the 1970s, but the previously tight connection between Britain’s trade unions and its Labour Party gradually began to erode, culminating in the failure of the Social Contract and ultimately in the Winter of Discontent. The social democratic parties in today’s Europe do not adhere to a formal social contract, as Labour attempted in the 1970s, but those parties are equally drifting apart from the working class whose interests they traditionally advocated for. This chapter narrates a story of caution for Europe’s social democratic left, arguing that cohesion between parties and their main demographics of support is instrumental for the political viability of the center-left.
