Over the past decades Western democracies have experienced dramatic change. In Europe, the most obvious is the decline of the mainstream parties, particularly those on the center-left, that long anchored and defined politics in the region. This talk will examine the reasons for the decline of center-left or social democratic parties in Europe, stressing the role played by these parties changing ideas about the nature of the economy and society. These changing ideas, I will argue, created incentives and opportunities for new parties, particularly on the populist right, to change their own platforms and appeals in ways that helped reshape how citizens viewed themselves and their relationships with their fellow citizens. The talk will focus on Western Europe, but bring in the East European and American cases for comparison.
