Social Democratic Trajectories in Modern Europe: One or Many Families?

Abstract

The social democratic movement in Europe has been a consciously internationalist and transnational movement from its inception. The conceptual confusion around the terms ‘social democratic’ and ‘socialist’ indicates at times simple homologies and at times ideological differences. But, from the early socialists of the nineteenth century to Karl Marx and the leading socialists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they were always clear about one thing: they represented the interests of workers and ordinary people everywhere. Hence they also founded Internationals to which socialist movements affiliated. However, such internationalism always co-existed with a very effective nationalization of Social Democratic Parties right across Europe. As political parties organized themselves within national frameworks and sought representation in national parliaments, their ‘natural’ constituency was made up of national publics (Schwartzmantel, 1991; Sassoon, 1996).