From Zero to Hero? The Rise of Olaf Scholz and the SPD

Germany's Social Democratic Party, the SPD, was in government between 2013 and 2021, but until just weeks before the federal election of 2021, its electoral prospects seemed poor. The party was able to turn things around and surge, in the final period of the campaign, to a remarkable victory. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGerman politics and society Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 127 - 147
Main Authors Turner, Ed, Vampa, Davide, Scantamburlo, Matthias
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Berghahn Books, Inc 22.09.2022
Subjects
2021 AD
Analysis
Coalition governments
Economic policy
Elections
International relations
Liberalization
Organizational structure
Pandemics
Pluralism
Political leadership
Political parties
Polls & surveys
Scholz, Olaf
Social democracy
Social democratic parties
Social justice
Social science research
Voters
Germany
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Summary:Germany's Social Democratic Party, the SPD, was in government between 2013 and 2021, but until just weeks before the federal election of 2021, its electoral prospects seemed poor. The party was able to turn things around and surge, in the final period of the campaign, to a remarkable victory. This article sets out structural challenges faced by social democrats in Europe in general and in Germany in particular, focusing on policies and voters, coalition politics, and questions about party organization. It argues that in each area, the SPD, with a mixture of sound strategic choices and good fortune, was to some extent able to extricate itself from the challenges it faced, and that its success owed much to the peculiarities of the 2021 election.
ISSN:1045-0300
1558-5441
DOI:10.3167/gps.2022.400307