Social Structure And Party Choice In Western Europe

This book analyses the impact of socio-structural variables, such as social class, religion, urban/rural residence, age and gender, on influencing an individual’s voting preferences. There have been major changes in recent decades both to social structure and how social structure determines people’s voting behaviour. There has also been a shift in value orientations, for example from religious to secular values and from more authoritarian to libertarian values. The author addresses the questions: How do social structure and value orientations influence party choice in advanced industrial democracies?; To what extent is the impact of social structure on party choice transmitted via value orientations?; To what extent is the impact of value orientations on party choice causal effects when controlled for the prior structural variables? The book will be of use to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, electoral politics and political sociology.

This study is a comparative analysis of the relationship between social structure and party choice in eight West European countries. Oddbjørn Knutsen analyzes the comparative strength of social structural variables, and how these have changed from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Other factors that are considered include for which parties the structural variables have the largest impact within the various party systems and across national contexts, and for which parties are the most significant change in support from various social groups found.

Is European party politics hovering above society? Why do voters pick one party over others? Is it a question of class? Of religion? Of attitudes about taxes or immigration or global warming? Or is it something else entirely? The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe takes a detailed look at the ways in which Western Europe’s party systems are anchored in social and ideological structures. The book’s first section focuses on the role of social structures - particularly education, class and religion - and analyzes the complex interplay among these factors. The second section addresses the ways that the sociological structures such as class and religion interact with voters’ values. The third section examines the way that these structures and values shape the space of political competition among parties. The conclusion integrates the findings of the empirical articles, putting them into broader comparative perspective, discussing whether relatively predictable structures have been overwhelmed by media-driven spectacles, political personalities and focus on short-term economic performance. This volume will appeal to scholars and graduate students in Europe and those from North America, Asia and other regions who study European politics, political parties, cleavages and political behaviour. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

This study is a comparative analysis of the relationship between social structure and party choice in eight West European countries. Oddbjørn Knutsen analyzes the comparative strength of social structural variables, and how these have changed from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Other factors that are considered include for which parties the structural variables have the largest impact within the various party systems and across national contexts, and for which parties are the most significant change in support from various social groups found.

Class Voting in Western Europe provides a rare, systematic, longitudinal, and cross-national study of social class and party choice in eight Western European, democratic countries: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, (West) Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands. This highly accessible and engaging work is based on data from the Eurobarometer surveys, conducted from 1975-1997. Class Voting in Western Europe outlines the theories of changes in class voting and provides and empirical analysis of class voting. This study differentiates between traditional class voting, total class voting, and overall left-right voting. Knutsen's thorough study will provide a new, straightforward understanding of social class and party choice to anyone interested in the complex relationship between modern society and politics.

Social pacts – policy agreements between governments, labor unions and sometimes employer organizations – began to emerge in many countries in the 1980s. The most common explanations for social pacts tend to focus on economic factors, influenced by industrial relations institutions such as highly coordinated collective bargaining. This book presents, and tests, an alternative and complementary explanation highlighting the electoral calculations made by political parties in choosing pacts. Using a dataset covering 16 European countries for the years 1980-2006, as well as eight in-depth country case studies, the authors argue that governments’ choice of social pacts or legislation is less influenced by economic problems, but is strongly influenced by electoral competition. Social pacts will be attractive when party leaders perceive them to be helpful in reducing the potential electoral costs of economic adjustment and wage restraint policies. Alternatively, parties may forgo negotiations with social partners and seek to impose such policies unilaterally if they believe that approach will yield electoral gain or minimize electoral costs. By combining the separate literatures on political economy and party politics, the book sheds new light on the dynamics of social pacts in Western Europe. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, economics, political economy, European Studies and comparative politics.

This book provides a systematic comparative analysis of how and why voting behaviour has changed in Europe in recent decades. It has been widely argued that radical changes have occurred in the how and why of voting behaviour in Europe as a result of changes in the structure of society, most notably the rise in material affluence and educational attainment, and the decline in religious observance and the size of the working class. But most tests of this proposition have been undertaken on single countries. This book, however, systematically tests the validity of this proposition across various European countries. The argument that social change has altered voting behaviour has been increasingly challenged on the grounds that it takes too little account of changes in the choices that are put before voters by the parties, such as the promises and proposals that are put forward at election time. This book, therefore, also assesses the relative explanatory power of claims that voting behaviour has changed because of changes in society against claims that it responds to changes in the offerings of political parties. And it is clear from the analyses reported in this book that contrary to the claims of much of the extant literature, the latter argument appears better able to account for many of the patterns and changes in European voting behaviour, and thus the book constitutes an important challenge to much current academic orthodoxy. This is the first book to provide a systematic comparison of the long-term dynamics of the voting behaviour of individual voters across such a wide range of European countries, taking into account the dynamics of the choices put before voters by the parties and, for the first time, relating this to the way voters behave. Comparative Politics is a series for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. The General Editors are Max Kaase, Professor of Political Science, Vice President and Dean, School of Humanities and Social Science, International University Bremen; and Kenneth Newton, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Southampton. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.

This is an analysis of the changing pressures and demands placed on party systems in 11 countries in Western Europe since 1945. This book includes studies of the party system in Britain, France, Italy and Germany, as well as studies of Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. Five major themes are examined in each chapter. First, the broad development of the party system is accompanied by a discussion of how different party system typologies have been applied to each country. Secondly, a detailed discussion of the historical background to party system developments is provided, dealing with the main divisions derived from the typology of Lipset and Rokkan. Thirdly, the most important contextual variables are considered in terms of the "electoral environment" within which the party system operates. Next, consideration is given to the degree of "unfreezing" of the party system since 1945 and the changing balance between stability and change. Finally, major questions of change and adaptation are examined, updating the text.