A Reflection on Classes; a Reflection on Parties

Abstract

This chapter proposes a reflection on classes, on parties and on the relationship between the two. In order to analyse the class basis of social democracy, the first step is to take sociology seriously. The challenge is to define social class and work with a class schema that captures important divisions in the labour market. The second step is to take politics seriously. Social class becomes a useful category for political analysis when one includes the crucial role of political actors in class mobilisation. The third step involves taking history seriously in order to precisely draw the contours of a working-class party. The challenge is to avoid the serious pitfalls of over-estimating or under-estimating the working-class character of social democracy. After having taken these three steps, the chapter concludes with a description of the Oesch class schema used in this book.