How Relevant Nowadays Is the Lipset- Rokkan Analysis of the Relationship Between Social Cleavage and Party Support?
How relevant nowadays is the Lipset- Rokkan analysis of the relationship between social cleavage and Party support?
In this essay I will first outline the analysis, by S.M. Lipset and S. Rokkan, of the relationship between social cleavage and party support (to be found in "Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments" by Lipset and Rokkan, The Free Press, New York, 1967, pages 1-164.). I will lay out the arguments in favour of the analysis, and I will provide examples that lend weight to it. I will also outline some of the principal objections to this theory and will create from them an argument against the Lipset - Rokkan model. Party support, according to Lipset and Rokkan, originates from fundamental divisions in the opinions of citizens. This split, they argue, will be identifiable in a number of ways. The first of these will be a 'social division '. This occurs, according to the Lipset and Rokkan theory, when a group of people appear different to one another in terms of their position in society; be it their religious views, their financial status, their race or their profession. The last of these ties in with another cleavage: that of class. (See Gallagher, Laver, Mair, "Representative Government in Modern Europe, 2nd edition." McGraw Hill, London 1995; p210 'the meaning of cleavage '). To take the British example of social division, it can be seen in the breakdown of votes for the 1983 general election that the Conservative Party achieved 62% support among the professional and managerial classes, while Labour received only 12% of the vote from the same social group. By contrast, the Conservatives received achieved only 29% support among the semi- and unskilled manual labourers, with Labour taking 44% of the vote there. This clearly shows the effect of the division in British politics. (Gallup poll, published in the Guardian, 13 June, 1983, reproduced by Bartolini, S. And Norton, P. in "Party Politics In Contemporary Western Europe"
In this essay I will first outline the analysis, by S.M. Lipset and S. Rokkan, of the relationship between social cleavage and party support (to be found in "Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments" by Lipset and Rokkan, The Free Press, New York, 1967, pages 1-164.). I will lay out the arguments in favour of the analysis, and I will provide examples that lend weight to it. I will also outline some of the principal objections to this theory and will create from them an argument against the Lipset - Rokkan model. Party support, according to Lipset and Rokkan, originates from fundamental divisions in the opinions of citizens. This split, they argue, will be identifiable in a number of ways. The first of these will be a 'social division '. This occurs, according to the Lipset and Rokkan theory, when a group of people appear different to one another in terms of their position in society; be it their religious views, their financial status, their race or their profession. The last of these ties in with another cleavage: that of class. (See Gallagher, Laver, Mair, "Representative Government in Modern Europe, 2nd edition." McGraw Hill, London 1995; p210 'the meaning of cleavage '). To take the British example of social division, it can be seen in the breakdown of votes for the 1983 general election that the Conservative Party achieved 62% support among the professional and managerial classes, while Labour received only 12% of the vote from the same social group. By contrast, the Conservatives received achieved only 29% support among the semi- and unskilled manual labourers, with Labour taking 44% of the vote there. This clearly shows the effect of the division in British politics. (Gallup poll, published in the Guardian, 13 June, 1983, reproduced by Bartolini, S. And Norton, P. in "Party Politics In Contemporary Western Europe"
Bibliography: Gallagher, Laver, Mair, "Representative Government in Modern Europe, 2nd edition." McGraw Hill, London 1995. Lipset and Rokkan "Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments" The Free Press, New York, 1967 Bartolini, S. And Norton, P. "Party Politics In Contemporary Western Europe" (Eds)Frank Cass, Bristol, 1984. Allardt and Rokkan (Eds) "Mass Politics" Collier- Macmillan, U.S.A 1970. Ambrosius, G and Hubbard, V.H "A Social and Economic History of the Twentieth Century." Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1989. Amyot, G.G. "The Long Twilight of the DC Regime" in Wolinets, S.B (ed) "Parties and Party Systems in Liberal Democracies," Routledge, London 1988.