Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T23:24:55.363Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Social and Attitudinal Basis of Political Parties: Cleavage Politics Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

Zsolt Enyedi*
Affiliation:
Central European University, Political Science Department, Nador u. 9, 1051, Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

As a result of various political and non-political developments, the socio-culturally anchored and well structured character of European party systems has come under strain. This article assesses the overall social embeddedness of modern party politics and identifies newly emerging conflict-lines. It draws attention to phenomena that do not fit into the trend of dealignment, and discusses the relationship between group-based politics and democratic representation.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

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

References and Notes

1.Bartolini, S. and Mair, P. (1990) Identity, Competition, and Electoral Availability: The Stabilization of European Electorates, 1885–1985 (New York: Cambridge University Press), p. 215.Google Scholar
2.Lipset, S. M. and Rokkan, S. (1967) Introduction. In: Lipset, S. M. and Rokkan, S. (eds) Party Systems and Voter Alignments (New York: Free Press), pp. 164.Google Scholar
3. See among others P. Nieuwbeerta (1995) The Democratic Class Struggle in Twenty Countries 1945–1990 (Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers). R. J. Dalton (2002) Political cleavages, issues, and electoral change. In: L. Le Duc, R. G. Niemi and P. Norris (eds) Comparing Democracies 2. New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications), pp. 189–209. R. Inglehart (1990) Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
4.Dalton, R. J. (1996) Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press), p. 346.Google Scholar
5. M. Franklin (1985) The Decline of Class Voting in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985). O. Knutsen (1988) The impact of structural and ideological party cleavages in Western European democracies: a comparative empirical analysis. British Journal of Political Science, 18, 323–52. H. Schmitt and S. Holmberg (1995) Political parties in decline? In: D. Fuchs and H.-D. Klingemann (eds) Citizens and the State (Oxford: Oxford University Press). R. Dalton (2004) Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press). M. Franklin, T. Mackie et al. (1992) Electoral Change: Responses to Evolving Social and Attitudinal Structures in Western Countries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
6. C. v. d. Eijk, M. Franklin, T. Mackie and H. Valen (1992) Cleavages, conflict resolution and democracy. In: M. Franklin, T. Mackie et al. (1992) Electoral Change, pp. 406–431.Google Scholar
7. For the synthesis of this literature see Evans, G. (1999) The End of Class Politics? Class Voting in Comparative Context (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. See for example Knutsen, O. and Scarbrough, E. (1995) Cleavage politics. In: Deth, J. W. v. and Scarbrough, E. (eds) The Impact of Values (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 492523.Google Scholar
9. O. Knutsen (1995) Party choice. In: J. W. v. Deth and E. Scarbrough (eds) The Impact of Values (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 160–196. M. Oskarson (2005) Social structure and party choice. In: J. Thomassen (ed.) The European Voter. A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 84–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. H. Kitschelt and A. J. McGann (1995) The Radical Right in Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press). H. G. v. d. Werfhorst and N. D. De Graaf (2004) The sources of political orientations in post-industrial society: social class and education revisited. British Journal of Sociology, 55, 211–223. J. Manza and C. Brooks (1999) Social Cleavages and Political Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11. E. O. Wright (1985) Classes (London: Verso). H. Kitschelt (1994) The Transformation of European Social Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). H. Kriesi (1999) Movements of the left, movements of the right: putting the mobilization of two new types of social movement into political context. In: H. Kitschelt, P. Lange, G. Marks and J. D. Stephens (eds) Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 398–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. R. Stubager (2006) The education cleavage: new politics in Denmark (Aarhus: Politica). W. Müller (1999) Class cleavages in party preferences in Germany – old and new. In: G. Evans (ed.) The End of Class Politics? Class Voting in Comparative Context (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 137–180. O. Knutsen (2005) The impact of sector employment on party choice: A comparative study of eight West European countries. European Journal of Political Research, 44, 593–621. H. Kriesi (1998) The transformation of cleavage politics. European Journal of Political Research, 33, 165–185.Google Scholar
13.Guimond, S., Bégin, G. and Palmer, D. L. (1989) Education and causal attribution: the development of ‘person–blame’ and ‘system–blame’ ideology. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52, 126140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Holland, J. L. (1985) Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments (Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
15.Tóka, G. (1998) Party appeals and voter loyalty in new democracies. Political Studies, 46, 589610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Kitschelt, H. (2004) Diversification and reconfiguration of party systems in postindustrial democracies. In: Europäische Politik (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung), http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/02608.pdf.Google Scholar
17.Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S. and Frey, T. (2006) Globalization and the transformation of the national political space: six European countries compared. European Journal of Political Research, 45, 921956.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Mattila, Cf. M. and Raunio, T. (2006) Cautious voters – supportive parties: opinion congruence between voters and parties on the EU dimension. European Union Politics, 7, 427449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19.Eijk, C. v. d. and Franklin, M. (2004) Potential for contestation on European matters at national elections in Europe. In: Marks, G. and Steenbergen, M., (eds) European Integration and Political Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 3250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20. ‘…based on the differentiation of interests and ideological positions within established and bounded political communities’. Bartolini, S. (2005) Restructuring Europe: Centre Formation, System Building, and Political Structuring Between the Nation State and the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p. 349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21. As Przeworski and Sprague famously put it: ‘…the relative salience of class as a determinant of individual voting behavior is a cumulative consequence of the strategies pursued by political parties of the Left’. Przeworski, A. and Sprague, J. (1986) Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), p. 8.Google Scholar
22.Enyedi, Z. (2005) The role of agency in cleavage formation. European Journal of Political Research, 44, 697720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Mair, P. (2006) Cleavages. In: Crotty, W. and Katz, R. (eds) Handbook of Political Parties (London: Sage), pp. 371375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.Holbrook, T. and McClurg, S. D. (2005) Presidential campaigns and the mobilization of core supporters. American Journal of Political Science, 49, 689703, p. 701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Elff, M. (2007) Social structure and electoral behavior in comparative perspective: the decline of social cleavages in Western Europe revisited. Perspectives on Politics, 5, 277294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26. For example, J. Thomassen (ed.) (2005) The European Voter. A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press) N. D. De Graaf, A. Heath and A. Need (2001) Declining cleavages and political choices: the interplay of social and political factors in the Netherlands. Electoral Studies, 20, 1–15. M. Oskarson (2005) Social structure and party choice. In: J. Thomassen (ed.) The European Voter. A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
27.Bernecker, W. and Günther, M. (eds.) (2007) España: del consenso a la polarización (Madrid and Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana and Vervuert).Google Scholar
28.Farrell, D. M. (2006) Political parties in a changing campaign environment. In: Katz, R. D. and Crotty, W. (eds) Handbook of Party Politics (London: Sage), pp. 122133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29.Kitschelt, H. (2000) Citizens, politicians, and party cartellization: political representation and state failure in post-industrial democracies. European Journal of Political Research, 37, pp. 149179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30. For example, Lawson, K. (1999) Cleavages, parties, and voters. In: Lawson, K., Rommele, A. and Karasimeonov, G. (eds) Cleavages, Parties and Voters; Studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania (Westport, CT and London: Praeger), pp. 1934.Google Scholar
31. H. Kitschelt, Z. Mansfeldova, R. Markowski and G. Tóka (1999) Post-communist Party Systems: Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Cooperation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). G. Tóka (2006) Elections and representation. In: P. Heywood, E. Jones, M. Rhodes and U. Sedelmeier (eds) Developments in European Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan), pp. 117–135.Google Scholar
32.Whitefield, S. (2002) Political cleavages and post-communist politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 5 181200, p. 191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Kitschelt, H. (1995) The formation of party cleavages in post-communist democracies. Party Politics, 1, 447472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34.Tóka, G. (1998) Party appeals and voter loyalty in new democracies. Political Studies, 46, 589610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.Körösényi, A. (1999) Government and Politics in Hungary (Budapest: CEU Press-Osiris).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36.Rose, R. and McAllister, I. (1986) Voters Begin to Choose: From Closed Class to Open Elections in Britain (London and Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
37.Evans, G. and Whitefield, S. (1993) Identifying the bases of party competition in Eastern Europe. British Journal of Political Science, 23, 521548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar