These are tough times for social democratic parties. Defined by their support for a strong welfare state within a capitalist economy, these parties have seen their traditional voter bases erode in recent years. And in government, they appear to many to have abandoned any last signs of a radical reformist outlook. It has even led some to speculate that the social democratic era may be over.

There remains a large variation in the electoral success of social democratic parties. The dismal performance of the French Socialist party recently stands in contrast to the more successful trajectory of progressive parties in Australia and Spain.

In the UK, Labour won a landslide in the 2024 general election, albeit one that was magnified by the British electoral system. But since then, it has suffered a collapse in devolved elections and in local polls.

Read more: From landslide to leadership crisis: where did it all go wrong for Keir Starmer?

In our book, Practical Social Democracy, we suggest that a new approach to social democracy is needed. As a political movement, social democratic reformism is often understood as an abstract construct – for example, a model based around high public spending and high taxation in a “mixed economy”. At other times it is........

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