What Is Left of the Left? the Response of Left-Wing Parties to the Great Recession in Electoral Campaigns

The current economic crisis in Europe has also caused a crisis of social democracy. Following a brief period of "emergency Keynesianism" governments have implemented austerity policies across Europe that have challenged the European welfare state. How have left-wing parties responded to these developments that have challenged their raison d’être? This paper examines the response of left-wing parties to the economic crisis in eight countries in Northern and Southern Europe. Using novel data on the positions that parties adopt during electoral campaigns through a quantitative content analysis of national newspapers, it compares the electoral strategies of centre-left and radical left-wing parties before and during the crisis. On the one hand, the paper tests the hypothesis that the crisis has (again) increased the salience of economic issues as opposed to cultural issues. On the other hand, it tests the hypothesis that centre-left parties have shifted (back) to the left in the context of the crisis. These effects partly reverse previous trends, but the depth of the economic crisis and the structure of party competition are important mediators: while the trend is stronger in crisis-ridden countries, the effect is weaker in countries where radical right-wing parties are the main challengers for centre-left parties. In the latter case, cultural issues like immigration are more salient and centre-left parties adapt more centrist policies. This has increased the gap between centre-left and radical left-wing parties and, hence, limited the ability of the political left to be a united force in response to the Great Recession.