The improbable rise of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign presents an interesting question: why is Sanders, a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist²," running as a Democrat¹? McGill University sociologist³ Barry Eidlin examines this question through an historical comparison with Canada, a country similar to the U.S. in many ways, but whose political culture and electoral system have ostensibly been more hospitable⁴ to labor⁵ parties. "In any other industrialized country, Sanders would likely be the standard-bearer for a labor or social democratic party", says Eidlin in a new analysis published in the American Sociological Review. "But the U.S. famously lacks such a party. The conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. lacks a labor or socialist party because its political culture is hostile to socialism, and its electoral system is uniquely hostile to third parties." 

 

Electoral data challenges conventional wisdom 

 

"The analysis of 142 years of electoral data shows that differences in political culture and electoral systems did not affect labor party support as expected: prior to the 1930s, political differences were muted, with low but significant labor party support in both countries" says Eidlin. 

 

It was only in the 1930s that labor party support collapsed⁶ in the United States and took off in Canada. Why was there such a stark⁸ shift in the 1930s? 

 

Using in-depth archival research, Prof. Eidlin shows that it was a consequence of different ruling party responses to worker and farmer protest during the Great Depression. In the U.S., FDR responded to the protests with rhetorical appeals to the "forgotten man" and policy reforms that successfully absorbed some farmer and labor groups into his New Deal coalition⁹, while simultaneously¹⁰ dividing and excluding others. The result was labor party collapse⁷. 

 

In Canada, mainstream¹¹ parties responded to protests with a combination of repression¹² and neglect. This exclusionary¹³ approach left room for the Cooperative Commonwealth¹⁴ Federation¹⁵ (CCF), a precursor¹⁶ to today's New Democratic Party (NDP), to organize them into a durable¹⁷ third-party coalition.

点击收听单词发音