Abstract:
German Social Democracy is facing tremendous challenges of societal and economic changes: party dealignment, a bourgeoisification of society, the rise of media democracy, and economic and cultural globalisation. The party's reaction - a third order change in its ideological objectives and a respective adjustment in its short term policy programme as the leading governing party in the redgreen coalition (AGENDA 2010) - is being investigated under the conditions of bounded rationality of voters and against the background of an unprecedented loss in acceptance by the electorate as well as the ordinary party member.