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Photo of Jonathan Polk. Photo.

Jonathan Polk

Professor

Photo of Jonathan Polk. Photo.

New Wine in Old Bottles : Explaining the Dimensional Structure of European Party Systems

Author

  • Jan Rovny
  • Jonathan Polk

Summary, in English

In Europe, noneconomic political issues are seen as secondary but significant aspects of political competition. There is uncertainty, however, about the sources of the varying relationships between economic and cultural politics. This article explains the variance in the correlation of the economic and cultural dimensions in different party systems through the impact of historical religious conflict. Despite the rise of new cultural issues, historical religious divides strikingly predict the relative distinctiveness of the sociocultural dimension in today’s Europe. By demonstrating that economic conflicts did not always supersede religious divides, but were at times brought into standing religious cleavages, we deepen the understanding of cleavage formation and longevity, and dimensional structure of politics in Europe.

Publishing year

2019

Language

English

Pages

12-24

Publication/Series

Party Politics

Volume

25

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • cleavages
  • dimensionality
  • Europe
  • party politics
  • religion

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1460-3683