Political metamorphoses

from social democracy to movement parties

Abstract

This article analyses the historical trajectory that led to the revolutionary social democracy of the end of 19th century to the exacerbated moderation in the 21st century that had as political consequence the recent creation of what the specialized literature has conventionally call as movement parties. The hypothesis presented is that the system of cartel parties, as described by Katz and Mair, legitimized the emergence of new political parties in the 21st century, as Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal, La France Insoumise in France and Die Linke in Germany. In countries with a simple-majority single-ballot system, such as England and the United States, that innovation has not emerged with a new party organization, but rather with internal changes in its traditional parties such as Labour and the Democratic.