Back from the Cold? Progressive Politics and Social Policy Paradigms in Southern Europe after the Great Recession

Abstract

This article examines the programmatic evolution of social democratic parties in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, three countries in which the center-left has governed in the last decade. To do so, the article develops an analytical framework for mapping social and labor market policy reforms and assessing their liberalizing, regularizing, or recalibrating character. In explanatory terms, the article studies the coalitional politics behind social democratic reforms as being conditional upon the relationships between organized interests, electoral social blocs, and party system dynamics. The comparative analysis shows both commonalities and differences: the cases range from postindustrial recalibration (Italy) to inclusive egalitarianism (Spain), with Portugal taking a middling path, closer to that of Spain. Overall, in these countries a move away from both traditional “social protectionism” and crisis-era internal devaluation has taken place, but it has taken different forms depending on country-specific coalitional dynamics within the left and trade union camps.