Leadership change and party change - The case of the Danish Social Democratic Party, 1960-95

The aim of this article is to elucidate the problem of party performance, leadership change and party change by undertaking an empirical analysis of the change of party leader in the Danish Social Democratic Party 1960-1995. The analysis tries to answer two questions: why did the party change its leader and did this change in leader result in any party change? The analysis shows that the dominant cause of party leadership change is to be understood in the light of performance as regards government office. An electoral defeat may be condoned if the party is able to stay in office. It further shows that the change of party leader did not cause any change in the party's manifestos, the coalition behavior of the party was affected only in so far as other parties perceived the leadership change to be of any use to them and, finally, no important changes of the party rules were adopted due to a leadership change.