Social Democratic Parties between Class and Organization*

Two questions are discussed in this article. First, what are the main divisions in the debate on the causes of the deradicalization of European social democratic parties? Second, what kind of empirical research could at this stage of the debate hope to contribute substantially to it? Through a survey of the literature the argument is presented that in both Marxist and Liberal debates the question of the relative importance of class-factors and party-factors emerge as dominant. The empirical confrontation of these perspectives has hitherto taken place at the national level. What is needed now is more local level research, which would give a more manageable unit in the exploration of the theoretical and empirical issues involved.