An Analysis Of The Transformation Of German Social Democratic Party Under European Integration

At the second half of 1990s, European Union had experienced a series of Leftturn. The social democratic parties in 13 EU countries had been government. At thesame time, Labor Party in the United Kingdom, Socialist Party in France and SocialDemocratic Party in Germany carried out similar reform. All these phenomena wereclosely related with the European integration .As German Social Democratic Party isnow part of the ruling coalition, with its rich historical documents, it serves as a goodexample for analyzing the impact of European integration.This article develops its argument among the following questions: How did theprocess of European integration affect German SPD? How did such impact occur?What changes has SPD undergone? And what were the concrete results of thechanges?The process of European integration has taken place for more than 50 years, andit had resulted in a set of distinctive system, common policy and value. This articleargues that European integration had affected German Social Democratic Party inthree dimensions: the process had direct impact on SPD;it also reconstructed thenational interest of Germany and the people. It brought about political, economical,cultural, social and psychological changes, which in turn pushed SPD fortransformation. Under the direct and indirect impact of European integration, SPDhad transformed from a proletarian political party into a "catch-all party" politicalparty. Its ideology had turned right, its world view diversified. It increased the powerof the party, decreased the influence of labor unions and adjusted the organizationstructure, member composition and activities variety. It also placed the interest ofmiddle class at the center of policy and reformed the social welfare and labor policy –both were used to be the main concern of SPD.This article applies the theory approach of new institutionalism to Europeanintegration with the methods of literature review, historical analysis and comparativestudy for analyzing the transformation of SPD in its rationality, organization andadvocacy for social policy under the process of European integration. With the abovetransformation, SPD had adapted to the development of European integration, provenby the fact that it had gain its ruling status in 1998. On the other hand, it had lost itsdistinction with other parties in political and social policy direction, and thereforeresulted in identity crisis.Since European integration is a historical process, it's impact on SPD is not aeventual but dispositional, concerning the diversification of the nation and thepeople's interest. The focus of this study, is the transformation of SPD rather than thedirect impact of European integration on SPD.