Retreating from Redistribution? Trends in Democratic Party Fidelity to Economic Equality, 1984–2020

During his presidency, Barack Obama described rising economic inequality as “the defining challenge of our time.” But a growing number of scholars and journalists argue that rising inequality is in part a result of the Democratic Party’s diminishing fidelity to an egalitarian economic agenda and its embrace of neoliberalism. In this article, we assess the veracity of this claim through a content analysis of all national Democratic Party platforms issued since 1984. We find that broad assertions of Democratic retreat from economic equality are for the most part exaggerated. Specifically, we argue that Democrats’ support for egalitarian policies has been complex and varied over time, with a marked decline under the influence of the New Democrats in the 1990s followed by a significant resurgence thereafter. However, while party support for equalizing policies has rebounded overall, the extent of the party’s commitment to specific policies varies according to the purported deservingness of beneficiaries. Our findings have important implications for debates concerning Democratic Party change, the politics of inequality, and the policy agenda of the Joe Biden administration.

THE IMPACT OF THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE US ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND ITS REPERCUSSION FOR THE PARIS AGREEMENT

The US entrance into the Paris Agreement in 2015, facilitated by the Barack Obama’s government, was a milestone for the country’s environmental history. Yet, with the 2016 presidential elections and the arrival of Donald Trump in power, there was a sudden change in the process of approaching environmental issues and, consequently, the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Climate Agreement. Herewith, this article aims to analyze, in a constructivist perspective, the impacts of the presidential elections and their consequent party change in the repercussions for the Climate Agreement. Thus, it consists of a qualitative research, with content analysis based on speeches from both parties and analysis of official documents and papers. Hence, it became apparent that the securitization process and the denial of scientific studies played an important role in the decision-making and environmental policies conferred by the Trump administration, contradicting all the environmental aspects of policies based on the Obama era. Finally, it is brought to light that the impacts of changes in power and the reverberation of speeches that occurred with the 2016 elections in the US, were decisive factors for the exit from the Paris Agreement.

The Blame Game: Narratives of Electoral Defeat and Party Change. The Case of Four Polish Political Parties

The purpose of the article is to present party elites’ narratives about electoral defeat in order to identify characteristics of the narratives which may inhibit or facilitate party change. The opening sections explain theoretical approach and methodology adopted for the research. The next paragraphs reconstruct and compare narratives of four Polish political parties, which experienced electoral defeat in 2011 and 2015 parliamentary elections, and give a psychological explanation for their emergence. As a result, four narrative strategies were identified of which only one seems to have potential to facilitate party change. Its distinctive feature is internalization of blame, whereas the others reveal tendency to denial or personalize and externalize blame.

The International Factor in the Domestic Political Transformation in the Kosovo's* “Albanian World”

The Kosovo issue is predominantly researched in academic and expert literature from an international political perspective. However, in light of common socio-political processes taking place in Europe during the last fi ve-seven years, the study of its internal political component, namely the political party transformation under the infl uence of external factors and the international community, regional stabilization eff orts is no less important. Based on J. Sartori’s classifi cation of party systems and R. Harmel and K. Janda’s theory of party change, the article studies the role of international actors, in particular the European Union, played in the institutional transformation of the political party transformation in the Albanian Kosovo. It also studies what opportunities and barriers appeared as a result of the EU’s involvement. The paper explains why the complex confi guration of the international mission in Kosovo in practice did not increase its legitimacy and establish an institutional system of governance but instead resulted in a loss of the mission’s credibility. The paper analyses and describes the process of political party transformation in Kosovo’s “Albanian world” and highlights the signifi cant milestones in the development of a party system involving those that had been borne out of the Kosovo confl ict. The article explains their possible ways of transformation in the future. It also explains the success factors of the populist “Self-Determination” movement and how sustainable this success has been in the changing international balance.

Brexit and party change: The Conservatives and Labour at Westminster

This article analyses the extent of party change in response to the vote for Brexit in the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. It focuses particularly on how both parties struggled to manage internal divisions and ideological conflict, and how each sought to manage the issue in terms of party competition. It argues that the Conservative Party victory at the 2019 UK general election was the result of an ultimately more effective response to the electoral dynamics unleashed by Brexit, as the party adjusted its position to successfully mobilise the coalition of Leave voters into party competition, while Labour struggled to do the same with Remain voters. In short, it suggests that substantial party change, particularly by the Conservatives, effectively averted major party system change and the realignment of British politics many analysts predicted. This case study analysis consequently contributes to the wider theoretical literature on external system shocks and party change.

A Sum of Its Parts: Party Fit and Party Change in the U.S. House

Previous research has noted the transformation of the American parties since the 1970s, as exhibited in their increased ideological polarization and transformation on social issues like civil rights, abortion, and the environment. We contribute to the literature on party change by theoretically stressing the decentralized and individualistic nature of American parties, while using a measure of party change that is based on legislative behavior beyond roll call voting. Our paper uses social network analysis to analyze the parties from the 93rd to 110th Congresses, utilizing bill cosponsorship to define connections between members. Our analysis illustrates how the core of the party, that is, who are most central in the cosponsorship network, has changed over time. We find evidence that party centrality influenced retirement decisions, thereby reinforcing and contributing to party change.