Social Democracy and European Integration: The politics of preference formation

Why do social democratic political parties respond differently to the crucial question of the future of the European Union? While many social democratic parties initially opposed specific forms of European integration, they came to lend their full and often critical support to European integration. Despite this evolution, important differences between them have remained.Social Democracy and European Integration examines the preferences of social democratic parties in Germany, France, the UK, Sweden and Greece towards European integration. Taking a comparative perspective, the contributors explore what kind of Europe these parties want, and seek to explain the origin and formation of these preferences. The book examines how parties sought to reconcile the tension between the post-World War II ideology of internationalism and solidarity, and how integration often appeared to undermine national achievements. Crucially, it seeks to account for the differences between approaches.Making an important contribution to preference formation scholarship and the research that links the European Union with the nation state, Social Democracy and European Integration will be of interest to students and scholars of the EU, comparative politics and political parties.