Britain’s Labour Party Can’t Become Another PASOK
Social democratic parties across Europe have suffered "Pasokification," the fate of the Greek center-left party that lost three-quarters of its voters in just three years. If Britain's Labour Party wants to avoid similar disasters, it needs an economic radicalism that can show the working class that it's really on their side.
Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, makes a statement on the UK economy on February 18, 2021 in London, England. (Stefan Rousseau – WPA Pool / Getty Images)
Recent decades have seen the decline of social democratic parties across Europe, with some becoming so atrophied as to lose any hope of winning office. The graph below vividly illustrates the demise of social democracy in France, Greece, and Holland — all sister parties of Britain’s Labour Party.
Their fate has become known as “Pasokification,” following the early 2010s collapse of Greece’s PASOK. This article explores whether this same threat confronts Britain’s Labour Party. We should say at the outset that this issue is complex and the evidence mixed. Moreover, we are not approaching this problem as social scientists with an interest in current trends — but as politically active agents who wish to understand the conjuncture aiming to influence it.
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