Social democrats faced a structural dilemma between class base and middle-class concessions

Evidence

This first puzzle had always assumed a particular shape for twentieth-century social democrats. As the Polish American political scientist Adam Przeworski saw it, there was a clear point of departure at which left-wing parties would trade talk of the “working class” for that of the “people.” In his view, the scenario ran as follows: on the one hand, early twentieth-century social democrats hoped that the expansion of industry would usher in a de facto working-class majority, which would allow them to capture office and reform their way into socialism. On the other hand, the continuing stagnation and eventual shrinkage of the class in question generated a further dilemma. Broadening the base would require concessions to middle-class constituencies, who had to remain the primary funders of the welfare state and use the same public services as the classes below them. On the other hand, the more benefits were granted to the middle classes in terms of consumer goods, the less breathing room for domestic industry, and the material bases of working-class strength and support would wither. Hence the tough choices laid out by Przeworski. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 18

Categorization

• QUESTION: Przeworski’s scenario is presented briskly - worth chasing the original formulation and its evidence for working-class stagnation driving the ‘people’ turn.
• XREF: Echoes the learned-passage theme of elites buying off middle classes; connects to the welfare-state fiscal bind arguments in Trust and cooperation literature. — connects to: Deindustrialization shattered social democracy’s class coalition — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 79; Social democratic parties abandoned class politics for a pro-market Third Way — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 117; Economic interdependence between classes historically drove democratic inclusion — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1601 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Deindustrialization shattered social democracy’s class coalition #expands (0.92) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 79
• Social democratic parties abandoned class politics for a pro-market Third Way #qualifies (0.80) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 117
• Class-based interest parties collapse when their class bases dissolve #exemplifies (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 754
• Social democracy chose containment over transformation of capitalism’s crisis. #expands (0.80)
• Economic interdependence between classes historically drove democratic inclusion #contradicts (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1601
• The mid-twentieth-century welfare state extended middle-class access to the previously excluded #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1740
• Middle-class concessions yield only formal socialism masking monopoly capitalism #complicates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 572