The Decline of Spanish Social Democracy 1982-1996

Abstract

At the beginning of the 1980s when social-democratic parties in northern and central Europe were considered to be in decline, the southern European Socialist parties flourished politically. One of them, the Spanish Socialist Party (Partido Socialisto Obrero Espanol, or PSOE), was re-elected four times (three of them by majorities), a record for political longevity among European Socialist parties. The purpose of this essay is to explain the continuities and changes that occurred during the 1982-1996 period when the PSOE was in government, and to analyze why the successive Socialist governments chose certain public policies over others. The article also analyzes the reasons for the subsequent electoral decline of the PSOE that culminated in their defeat in 1996. Against what prominent interpretations of social democracy like that of Przeworski and Sprague would lead us to expect, we show that the primary reason for the decline of the PSOE government in particular and of Spanish social-democracy's fortunes in general was the adoption of public policies that conflicted with the interests of large constituencies of their electorate, including both the working and middle classes.