SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

a short-lived British political party that was formed in 1981 by a faction of the Labour Party in reaction to Labour's domination by leftists and trade-union representatives. The Social Democrats claimed a central position within the British political spectrum, hoping to end what they perceived as a tendency for public policy to lurch from far-left to far-right as governments changed. In 1988 most members of the SDP acceded to a merger with the Liberal Party to form what is now called the Liberal Democratic Party (q.v.). Paul David Webb Additional reading The most comprehensive and authoritative source on the Social Democratic Party is Ivor Crewe and Anthony King, SDP: The Birth, Life, and Death of the Social Democratic Party (1995).