Center-left parties lost their social bases and legitimacy, creating the vacuum populism filled.

Evidence

There were clear preconditions for Laclau’s sudden relevance. Traditional European party politics was experiencing a historic crisis, exemplified by the complete inability of the Greek Social Democratic Party (Pasok) to advance any alternative to the Euro-Diktats. “Pasokification” quickly became a general metaphor for the center-left’s delegitimation in the crater of 2008. In the years leading up to the crisis, European parties had steadily disengaged from their social bases, increasingly resorting to PR and marketing techniques. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 28

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the party-party detachment argument seen in the reader’s notes on media/PR-driven politics displacing representation; also connects to the systemic legitimation-crisis machinery. — connects to: Post-1968 purges destroyed society’s faith in the Czech party’s legitimacy — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 199; Populist-left politics emerged amid party decline and labor movement collapse — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 15; Center-left parties’ embrace of austerity fueled the European populist upsurge — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 111 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Center-left parties’ embrace of austerity fueled the European populist upsurge #expands (0.82) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 111
• Mass party membership collapsed across Europe in the 1980s-2000s #corroborates (0.78) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 128