Are Social Democratic Parties Insider-Parties? Electoral Strategies of Social Democratic Parties in Western Europe

This article analyses the electoral strategies of social democratic parties in the context of increased and new inequalities among their electorates. The literature on the politics of dualisation argues that social democratic parties are essentially insider-parties pursuing social policies in favour of their traditional core constituency, the insiders. By contrast, I argue that they address the interests of the contested segments of their electorate during electoral campaign, while at the same time promising to provide the ground for economic prosperity. With this electoral strategy, they aim to mobilise a larger electoral coalition of insiders and outsiders. I also argue here that the composition of the electorate varies, depending on the electoral incentives set by party configuration. I rely on newly collected data, derived from a content analysis of party statements as reported in newspapers during the election campaign between 2007-2010 in six West European countries (Britain, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland).