The transformation of social democratic parties from within

The fate and ideology of social democratic parties in the 21st century is one of the most discussed and debated questions in academic and policy circles, alike. The question at the heart of the debate is whether the electoral decline of social democratic parties is due to their ideological convergence to the centre in terms of their adopted policies or due to the decline in manufacturing jobs and broader socio-economic changes. An understudied and less understood question is how social democratic parties have changed internally in terms of their class composition as well as in term of the social classes they represent in government over time. Are social democratic governments different from center-right parties in terms of their social class composition? Could a convergence in the social class representation of by social democratic governments be associated with electoral gains and losses? Utilizing data on the class composition of cabinet ministers across 18 parliamentary democracies since 1945, this article investigates how social democratic cabinets have changed in terms of their class composition over time and across political systems. Second, it investigates the role of economic, social, political and electoral factors that could be associated with the changing class composition of social democratic parties in government.