Perspectives on Politics

  • Perspectives on Politics (2007), 5 : pp 277-294
  • Copyright © 2007 American Political Science Association
  • DOI: 10.1017/S1537592707070788 (About DOI)
  • Published online: 14 May 2007

Table of Contents - 2007 - Volume 5, Issue 02  


Social Structure and Electoral Behavior in Comparative Perspective: The Decline of Social Cleavages in Western Europe Revisited

Martin  Elff  a1
a1 Department of Social Sciences of the University of Mannheim, Germany, E-mail: elff@sowi.uni-mannheim.de

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elff m   [Google Scholar] 
 

Abstract

A new conventional wisdom characterizes the comparative study of electoral politics. Social cleavages, once a stabilizing factor of electoral behavior in Western Europe, are on the wane. Voting decisions have become individualized and old social cleavages have been superseded by new value-related cleavages. This article challenges that view as an exaggeration. a


Footnotes

a Martin Elff is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Mannheim, Germany (elff@sowi.uni-mannheim.de). The author wishes to thank William Maloney, Anthony Mughan, Betty Haire Weyerer, Thomas Gschwend, Jan van Deth, Sigrid Roßteutscher, Simone Abendschön, Daniel Stegmüller, and especially Jennifer Hochschildt and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts.


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