The German Social Democrats in a “Super Election Year”

Many conservatives and neoliberals claim that now that Soviet-style communism is extinct, social democracy (or democratic socialism) will soon meet the same fate. Then, of course, they assert that capitalism has triumphed. Are their claims premature, at least as far as social democracy in Germany is concerned? Does the sharp turn of the Social Democratic party of Germany (SPD) to pragmatism in this “Super Election Year” 1994, in which twenty local, state, national, and European Parliament elections are scheduled, signify that the party has given up its vision of amuted social democratic future that conservatives and neoliberals do not share?

A survey of the SPD in contemporary Germany should be able to provide some ans...