Studies On The Functional Changes Of The European Socialist Parties

After World War II, along with the rise of the new technological revolution, social structures in the Western world have undergone great changes. The recognition of the public for political parties has universally declined, and the ways of the electorates participating in politics have also altered, which brought rather great concussion and challenge to the established political parties in Western Europe. As the prototype of the mass-party, the European socialist parties suffered an especial concussion and challenge in its traditional functions. Therefore, many scholars, at home or overseas, hold the view that the European Socialist parties are in decline.To be adapted to the new social circumstances, the European Socialist parties took a series of reforming measures, and their traditional functions greatly changed. This article focuses on the concrete functional reforms which the European Socialist parties performed, and discusses the influence of such reforms on the development of the European Socialist parties.First, this article offers a general overview of the scholarship that has been done on the current situation of the European Socialist parties'functional reforms, on which basis it further proposes an analytical framework in four regards: 1) by defining the role of political party and specifying its various functions in processes of democratization; 2) by analyzing challenges the European socialist parties confronting after the World War II; 3) by identifying the functional reforms the European socialist parties performed; 4) by analyzing the outcomes and experiences of the European socialist parties'functional reforms.Second, this article takes the French Socialist party (PS), the British Labor Party, and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) as examples, and proposes an analytical framework distinguishing between three levels of the party's functional reforms: the functional innovation on the party-society linkage; the functional reform on the party organization; the functional reform on the party-state linkage. Then, this article discusses about the extent to which that functions remain a monopoly of parties.Finally, this article asserts that the functions of the European Socialist Parties would surpass those of the traditional parties. For one thing, the Socialist parties would diminish their functions in congregating and representing the public, accelerating the political amalgamation of the people and promoting the socialization of politics, while enforce their functions in electing, structuring and maintaining their government, and constituting and implementing their policies. For another, despite the European Socialist parties no longer merely function as a bridge between the public and the government, focusing on their administrating function instead of their function in congregating and representing the public, it is a must for these parties to regard the support from the public so as to administrate and maintain the operation of the government. The support from the public determines the legitimacy of a party, which further decides the stability of the governemnt managed by the party. Therefore, the socialist parties can still not remote from the civil society and thoroughly becomes a national institution.This article states that it is still too early to declare the European socialist parties in a state of decline. Rather, the functional reforms of the Eropean socialist parties is a self-regulation and amelioration in order to be adapted to the circumstances, and in a period of foreseeable time, the European socialist parties will undergo a further change and continue to maintain their principal position in the European politics.