Phoenix from the Ashes. The PSOE Government under Rodrguez Zapatero 20042007: A new model for social democracy?

With the Spanish general election approaching, this article considers the political lessons for social democratic parties to be drawn from the PSOE's experience in government and argues that its strategy has been based on contrasting approaches in the economic and non-economic policy areas. Continuity has characterised the PSOE's economic policy orientation, as it has broadly maintained the policy inherited from the previous PP government. In contrast, the PSOE has put in place a number of innovative reforms in areas beyond the economic policy arena, particularly with respect to policy on civil and gender rights. This combination has allowed the government under Rodrguez Zapatero to prioritise macroeconomic stability whilst at the same time distinguishing itself from previous PSOE and PP governments via a package of reforms which, it argues, has formed the basis of a distinctive national social democratic agenda founded on economic efficiency, social justice and individual freedoms.