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 performan ce, leadership change and party change by undertaking an empirical ana lysis of the change of party leader in the Danish Social Democratic Pa rty 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 p arty change? The analysis shows that the dominant cause of party leade rship change is to be understood in the light of performance as regard s 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 l eader did not cause any change in the party's manifestos, the coalitio n behavior of the party was affected only in so far as other parties p erceived the leadership change to be of any use to them and, finally, no important changes of the party rules were adopted due to a leadersh ip change.