Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-24T16:16:30.227Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The declining electoral relevance of traditional cleavage groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2011

Robin E. Best
Robin E. Best*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
*
* E-mail: bestre@missouri.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines changes in the electoral relevance of traditional social cleavage groups in eight West European democracies, where electoral relevance is defined as group contributions to party vote shares. The approach presented here demonstrates the critical importance of both the electoral behaviour and the size of the cleavage group when electoral outcomes are of interest. The findings from analyses of the behaviour and size of working class and religious citizens (1975–2002) reveal significant declines in the contributions of these groups to party vote shares. Analyses of the sources of these declines point to the importance of group size, suggesting that the changes we observe in election results and party strategies are likely to be long-lasting alterations in the electoral landscape of Western democracies.

Keywords

social cleavagesWestern Europeelectoral relevance
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 2011 , pp. 279 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, J.G. (1984), ‘Decline of class voting or change in class voting? Social classes and party choice in Denmark in the 1970s’, European Journal of Political Research 12: 243–259.Google Scholar
Axelrod, R. (1972), ‘Where the votes come from: an analysis of electoral coalitions, 1952–1968’, American Political Science Review 66: 11–20.Google Scholar
Bartolini, S. Mair, P. (1990), Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bernardi, F. Garrido, L. (2008), ‘Is there a new service proletariat? Post-industrial employment growth and social inequality in Spain’, European Sociological Review 24: 299–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, C., Nieuwbeerta, P. Manza, J. (2006), ‘Cleavage-based voting behavior in cross-national perspective: evidence from six postwar democracies’, Social Science Research 35: 88–128.Google Scholar
Broughton, D. ten Napel, H. (eds) (2000), Religion and Mass Electoral Behavior in Europe, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clark, T.N. Lipset, S.M. (1991), ‘Are social classes dying?’, International Sociology 6: 397–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, T.N., Lipset, S.M. Rempel, M. (1993), ‘The declining political significance of social class’, International Sociology 8: 293–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crouch, C. (2008), ‘Change in European societies since the 1970s’, West European Politics 31: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, R.J. (1984), ‘Cognitive mobilization and partisan dealignment in advanced industrial democracies’, Journal of Politics 46: 264–284.Google Scholar
Dalton, R.J. (2002), ‘Political cleavages, issues, and electoral change’, in L. LeDuc, R.G. Niemi and P. Norris (eds), Comparing Democracies 2, London: Sage Publications, pp. 189–209.Google Scholar
Dalton, R.J., Flanagan, S.C. Beck, P.A. (eds) (1984), Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
DeGraaf, N.D., Heath, A. Need, A. (2001), ‘Declining cleavages and political choices: the interplay of social and political factors in the Netherlands’, Electoral Studies 20: 1–15.Google Scholar
Dogan, M. (2001), ‘Class, religion, party: triple decline of electoral cleavages in Western Europe’, in L. Karvonen and S. Kuhnle (eds), Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited, New York: Routledge Press, pp. 90–110.Google Scholar
Dogan, M. (2004), ‘From social class and religious identity to status incongruence in post-industrial societies’, Comparative Sociology 3: 163–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elff, M. (2007), ‘Social structure and electoral behavior in comparative perspective: the decline of social cleavages in Western Europe revisited’, Perspectives on Politics 5: 277–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elff, M. (2009), ‘Social divisions, party positions, and electoral behavior’, Electoral Studies 28: 297–308.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (ed.) (1993), Changing Classes, London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (1993), ‘The decline of class divisions in Britain? Class and ideological preferences in the 1960s and the 1980s’, British Journal of Sociology 44: 449–471.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (ed.) (1999), The End of Class Politics?, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Evans, G. (2000), ‘The continued significance of class voting’, Annual Review of Political Science 3: 401–417.Google Scholar
Evans, G., Heath, A. Payne, C. (1999), ‘Class: labour as a catch-all party?’, in G. Evans and P. Norris (eds), Critical Elections. British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective, London: Sage, pp. 87–101.Google Scholar
Franklin, M.N. (1985), The Decline of Class Voting in Britain, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, M., Mackie, T. Valen, H. (eds) (1992), Electoral Change: Responses to Evolving Social and Attitudinal Structures in Western Countries, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, M. Mughan, A. (1978), ‘The decline of class voting in Britain: problems of analysis and interpretation’, American Political Science Review 72: 523–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freire, A. (2006), ‘Bringing social identities back in: the social anchors of left-right orientation in Western Europe’, International Political Science Review 27: 359–378.Google Scholar
Güveli, A., Need, A. de Graaf, N.D. (2007), ‘The rise of “New” social classes within the service class in the Netherlands: political orientation of social and cultural specialists and technocrats between 1979 and 2003’, Acta Sociologica 50: 129–146.Google Scholar
Heath, A., Jowell, R. Curtice, J. (1985), How Britain Votes, Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (1977), The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Styles among Western Publics, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (1984), ‘The changing structure of political cleavages in western society’, in R.J. Dalton, S.C. Flanagan and P.A. Beck (eds), Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R. (2008), ‘Changing values among western publics from 1970 to 2006’, West European Politics 31: 130–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karvonen, L. Kuhnle, S. (2001), Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited, New York: Routledge Press.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, H. (1993), ‘Class structure and social democratic party strategy’, British Journal of Political Science 23: 299–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitschelt, H. (1994), The Transformation of European Social Democracy, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knutsen, O. (2004), Social Structure and Party Choice in Western Europe, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Knutsen, O. (2006), Class Voting in Western Europe, London: Rowman & LittleField.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. (1972), ‘Some problems in the measurement of class voting’, American Journal of Sociology 78: 627–642.Google Scholar
Lachat, R. (2008), ‘The impact of party polarization on ideological voting’, Electoral Studies 27: 687–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, S.M. Rokkan, S. (1967), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives, New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Mair, P. (2008), ‘The challenge to party government’, West European Politics 31: 211–234.Google Scholar
Manza, Hout, J.M. Brooks, C. (1995), ‘Class voting in capitalist democracies since World War II: dealignment, realignment, or trendless fluctuation?’, Annual Review of Sociology 21: 137–162.Google Scholar
McDonald, M.D. Best, R. (2006), ‘Equilibria and restoring forces in models of vote dynamics’, Political Analysis 14: 369–392.Google Scholar
Nieuwbeerta, P. (1996), ‘The democratic class struggle in postwar societies: class voting in twenty countries, 1954–1990’, Acta Sociologica 39: 345–383.Google Scholar
Nieuwbeerta, P. DeGraaf, N.D. (1999), ‘Traditional class voting in twenty postwar societies’, in G. Evans (ed.), The End of Class Politics?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 23–56.Google Scholar
Nieuwbeerta, P. Ultee, W. (1999), ‘Class voting in western industrialized countries, 1945–1990: systemizing and testing explanations’, European Journal of Political Research 35: 123–160.Google Scholar
Norris, P. Inglehart, R. (2004), Sacred and Secular, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oesch, D. (2006), ‘Coming to grips with a changing class structure: an analysis of employment stratification in Britain, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland’, International Sociology 21: 263–288.Google Scholar
Pontusson, J. (1995), ‘Explaining the decline of European social democracy’, World Politics 47: 495–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, A. Sprague, J. (1986), Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rose, R. Urwin, D. (1969), ‘Social cohesion, political parties and strains in regimes’, Comparative Political Studies 2: 7–67.Google Scholar
Rose, R. Urwin, D. (1970), ‘Persistence and change in western party systems since 1945’, Political Studies 18: 287–319.Google Scholar
Rose, R. (ed.) (1974), Electoral Behavior, New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Van Holsteyn, J.J.M. Irwin, G.A. (2000), ‘The bells toll no more: the declining influence of religion on voting behavior in the Netherlands’, in D. Broughton and H. ten Napel (eds), Religion and Mass Electoral Behavior in Europe, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Van Kersbergen, K. (2008), ‘The Christian democratic phoenix and modern unsecular politics’, Party Politics 14: 259–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuckerman, A. Lichbach, M.I. (1977), ‘Stability and change in European electorates’, World Politics 29: 523–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar