Political Cleavages Flashcards
What are cleavages?
A clear division, a social conflict
Characteristics of cleavages
- Social Division: 2 groups need to be distinguished
- Collective Identity: act on the group aim’s basis
- Institutionally Represented
Types
Centre Periphery
· Origin: state formation
· Centre: standardise laws
· Periphery: preserve autonomy & local essence
Spain: ECR / Basque National Party
UK: SNP
Types
Church State
· Origin: state formation
· Catholics: follow the Pope by creating an environment to prevent state penetration
· Protestants: part of the state’s agents (doing what the state wants religiously)
NL: CDA
Germany: Christian Democratic/Social Union (CDU/CSU)
Italy: DC
Types
Rural Urban
· Origin: industrial revolution
· Rural: agriculture
· Urban: urbanisationn
NL: BBB
Poland: PLP
Types
Class
· Origin: industrial revolution
· WC: rights and better conditions
· MD: exploit and get benefits
In states where the government acted for the working class (socialist parties)
UK: Labour
NL: PvdA
Spain: PSOE
Germany: Social Dem. Party
In states where the government didn’t act for the working class
(communist/left parties)
Spain: Podemos
NL: SP
Germany: DieLinke
By what are Party Systems influenced?
By cleavages and electoral systems
Party Families (3)
Help to identify/classify parties within the political system based on
1. Origin
2. Cooperation
3. Ideology
Within the Left-Right Dimension parties are position based on
Economic
- left: state intervention (higher taxes)
- right: no state intervention (privatisation)
Culture
- liberal: promotion of rights
- authoritarian: the state controlling rights
How is a party’s position calculated?
It is calculated based on the degree of fragmentation (to what extent are parties present in the systems) and the degree of polarisation (ideological distance)
Types of systems (3)
2 party system: UK (2 main political parties)
Multiparty system: many parties within the political landscape (Spain)
Polarised Multiparty system: many parties and clear division between left-right (Sweden)
Developments of the state (4)
- Welfare state
- Mobility
- Communication
- Education
What is Realignment?
When a system realigns its values due to a shift in patterns
*ongoing debate as for whether realignment is caused by globalisation or voting behaviour
Realignment & PM
PM has reinforced realignment since there is an increase in social, environmental and cultural importance
· younger generations don’t grow up with war threats
· greater stability and materials
· increase in cognitive mobility
green parties
Downsides of Realignment & PM (3)
- values fluctuate over time
- PM values result from education
- Is the model measuring values or the cultural dimension?
