To what extent does moderation in ideological positioning by social democratic parties affect their short- and long-term electoral fortunes? Do existing social democratic electorates respond differently to moderation from the major parties of the Moderate Left on the economic as opposed to the cultural dimension? Previous research suggests that social democratic parties received an influx of centrist voters post-moderation but that these new centrist voters were less attached to the party and left in later elections, as did left-leaning social democrats frustrated by moderation strategies. This chapter further probes whether there is a link between moderation and individual voters’ shifts from social democratic parties at a later point, by considering a larger number of cases and by differentiating between the economic and cultural dimensions. We examine individual-level data on voting behavior combined with information on mainstream left parties’ ideological shifts in up to fifty elections in sixteen countries over recent decades. The findings show that (a) moderation can have detrimental consequences in the longer term; (b) the consequences of moderation differ across the left-right and cultural dimensions of electoral competition; and (c) the combination of individual-level analysis, with broader contextual and systemic considerations, is essential to fully engage with these questions.

This chapter tells the story of the hope generation’s contribution to Perestroika through the example of Dieter Klein (1931), a progressive political economist of capitalism and science manager at Humboldt University. Welcoming the changes in light of the vision of overcoming Stalinism and inviting the young generation into the reformist movement against the Old Communists that stubbornly occupied the Politburo, the reform of socialism turned into a battle for its very survival. Contributing to the reformist research during Perestroika at first with a political economy of capitalism based on peace rather than class conflict, he was increasingly disconnected from the civil rights movement due to his confidence in inner-party reform. He was in the position of realizing his reformist ideas at the Party Congress in December 1989 when the party transformed from a force with constitutional power into parliamentary opposition in the system of the class enemy.

This chapter is devoted to an exposition of Christian Democracy’s tenets in the field of political economy through an analysis of the meaning this ideological tradition has historically assigned to the concept of social capitalism and other related concepts such as social market economy, solidarism and third way between capitalism and socialism. The fact that an ideology that claims to be based on Christian values has anything distinctive to say about the socioeconomic domain may initially appear surprising. On further reflection, however, this proves to be an essential component of the Christian Democratic ideology as a whole, for at least two reasons.