Vorwärts oder abwärts?

Jospin, Blair, Schröder: 1998 seemed to be a golden age for European social democracy. Eleven years later, the SPD lost 10,192,426 million votes and chipped six party leaders, the Dutch Partij van de Arbeid achieved the worst result in its history in 2002, the Swedish Social Democrats in 2006, the Austrian in 2008. It looks as if the Social Democrats have no convincing answer to the radical changes in the world of work, to individualisation and globalisation. Franz Walter, one of the most prominent German party researchers and proven SPD expert, examines the causes for the decline of the SPD, which, according to Walter, began as early as 1973. He takes a look across the borders of Germany and asks.