There is wide consensus among scholars that the relationship between social movements and political parties has always been characterized by patterns of interaction and dialogue. However, when looking at this relationship from the perspective of the political parties’ responsiveness to the movements, a somewhat different pattern emerges. Research has shown that even though parties interact with social movement actors and support their claims at the societal level, once at the institutional level they do not just ‘reproduce’ the movements’ position. Social movements’ claims are indeed brought forward by supportive parties but they are in a mediated form, inevitably transforming the nature of the movements’ original demands. Based on empirical evidence on the left wing parties, which have maintained a privileged relationship with the social movement family throughout the decades, this paper examines this phenomenon of distortion, and discusses its broader implications for democracy.
