Social Democratic Governments and Business

Given their traditional links to trade unions and the ideological Left, social democratic parties frequently face questions concerning their relationship with business. Three main issues arise in the labour history literature in regard to this relationship: ideological capture, business lobbying and corruption. The contributions to the thematic section of this issue offer a range of new and, in some ways, confronting, perspectives on the relationship between business and social democratic parties against the background of the push towards neo-liberalism in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom since the 1980s. These articles also show that any study of the relationship between social democratic governments and business must go beyond the general and theoretical to engage with the particular and the empirical

Democracy · Face (sociological concept) · Ideology · Liberalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social democracy · Social Democratic Party · Social science · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies