Electoral Choice—Voter Demand and Party Supply
This chapter examines the impact of the economic and cultural cleavages on Europeans’ voting choices over time. There is a strong and persisting influence of the economic cleavage on voting choices with little change after the 2008 financial crisis. There is also a growing importance of the cultural cleavage. In recent elections, the cultural cleavage outweighs the influence on the economic cleavage. The polarization of party positions on the cultural cleavage increases the influence of this cleavage, but the same pattern is not apparent for the economic cleavage. The salience of each cleavage also affects its weight in voting decisions. European voters and parties have realigned their positions so that both cleavages are now important for electoral choice. The analyses are based on the European Election Studies in 1979, 2009, and 2014.