Explaining the Crisis and Electoral Decline of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the Era of Welfare State Retrenchment (2002-2012)

The article analyzes the relationship between the drastic electoral decline of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the party's earlier leadership role in retrenching the German welfare state in the Hartz reforms after 2002. Starting with a survey of the SPD's recent political history, the article explains how the government of Gerhard Schröder advanced welfare retrenchment policies that abandoned the SPD's core electorate. The conclusion refers to party sociologist Otto Kirchheimer's theory of the catch-all party to demonstrate how welfare retrenchment policies create new structural barriers against the ability of the SPD to compete successfully in elections.