Class is not dead - it has been buried alive : class voting and cultural voting in postwar western societies (1956-1990)
By: WALL, Jeroen Van Der.
Contributor(s): ACHTERBERG, Peter | HOUTMAN, Dick.
Material type: ArticlePublisher: Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications, September 2007Politics & Society 35, 3, p. 403-426Abstract: By means of a reanalysis of the most relevant data sourcethe International Social Mobility and Politics Filethis article criticizes the newly grown consensus in political sociology that class voting has declined since World War II. An increase in crosscutting cultural voting, rooted in educational differences rather than a decline in class voting, proves responsible for the decline of traditional class-party alignments. Moreover, income differences have not become less but more consequential for voting behavior during this period. It is concluded that the new consensus has been built on quicksand. Class is not deadit has been buried alive under the increasing weight of cultural voting, systematically misinterpreted as a decline in class voting because of the widespread application of the so-called Alford indexBy means of a reanalysis of the most relevant data sourcethe International Social Mobility and Politics Filethis article criticizes the newly grown consensus in political sociology that class voting has declined since World War II. An increase in crosscutting cultural voting, rooted in educational differences rather than a decline in class voting, proves responsible for the decline of traditional class-party alignments. Moreover, income differences have not become less but more consequential for voting behavior during this period. It is concluded that the new consensus has been built on quicksand. Class is not deadit has been buried alive under the increasing weight of cultural voting, systematically misinterpreted as a decline in class voting because of the widespread application of the so-called Alford index
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