"What is 'left' remains the crucial question in European politics, and De Waele, Escalona and Vieira provide an answer to be meditated and remembered by giving an exhaustive, non conventional picture of social democratic parties and singling out the challenges they have to cope with and overcome." - Leonardo Morlino, President of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), 2009/12 and Professor Political Science, LUISS Guido Carlo University, Italy.

"A remarkably useful compendium analyzing, with a considerable sense of balance, the social democratic left in twenty-seven member-countries of the European Union: history, membership, electoral results, party programmes and, at the end of each essay, a brave attempt to peer into the uncertain future of social democracy. A great tool for comparativists. Thank you!" - Donald Sassoon, Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

"This Handbook assembles an outstanding group of international experts on social democracy in their respective countries. Its special strength is that all experts speak to the same analytical questions of social democratic party development and thereby systematically cover hard-to-find information on party organization and intra-party dynamics. The Handbook is exceptionally valuable for students of social democracy in a comparative perspective as well as practitioners and country experts who seek to relate social democratic experience in their own to that of other countries. I cannot think of a better source to begin research on European social democracy." - Herbert Kitschelt, Department of Political Science, Duke University, USA