The Pattern of Party Concerns in Modern Democracies, 1950–1990

Abstract

The goal of this essay is to describe in broad terms the contours of party election programs in modern democracies over the period between the 1950s and the 1990s. What issues have been stressed in the election programs (platforms) of the major political parties that have competed in modern democracies during the second half of the twentieth century? Are there similarities and differences in the programs that distinguish the major classes or families of modern parties? How has their focus on particular issue domains changed over time? Do the trends in concerns of major party families reflect the broad sociopolitical changes of the second half of the twentieth century?

I am grateful to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences and to the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) for support that facilitated the research reported here.