scholarly journals The intergenerational foundations of class voting: social mobility and electoral choice in Western Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Ciccolini ◽  
Juho Härkönen
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Voting Choice

Scholarly explanations of the survival of left parties and the upsurge in mainstream politics discontent often refer to voters' intergenerational mobility resulting from the post-industrial transition. As the occupational structure evolves, voters across generations are exposed to heterogenous life chances, and the social elevator progressively alters class voting patterns. Yet empirical evidence for the electoral implications of social ascent and decline as well as their reasons is mixed at best – likely because most empirical studies seek for homogenous average mobility effects. To address this limitation, we analyse the diverse consequences of mobility across social groups in a quasi-descriptive fashion by applying a cutting-edge ANOVA-based OLS model. Contrarily to prior studies, this approach allows us to identify class-specific mobility effects on voting (ceteris paribus), consistently with theory. Our analyses draw on individual-level detailed information on both intergenerational social mobility and political behaviour from the European Social Survey (rounds 1-9) across 19 Western European countries. Although scholarly accounts on the consequences of social mobility averagely find little to no support in our analyses, we do observe some significant and substantial class-specific effects of both social ascent and descent on voting choice.

scholarly journals A threat from within? Perceptions of immigration in an enlarging European Union

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Jeannet
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Level Data ◽  
European Immigration ◽  
East West

Scholars have taken a considerable interest in how global immigration to Europe generates public concern, but we still know little about the role that migration from within the European region has in fueling apprehensions. To better understand this, I examine how public attitudes towards immigration have responded to migration following the European Union’s most extensive enlargement along its eastern border in 2004. Using recent advances in multilevel modeling, this article analyzes the longitudinal, cross-sectional relationship between east–west internal European migration on public attitudes towards the economic and cultural aspects of immigration in Western Europe using individual-level data from the European Social Survey (2004–2014). The results demonstrate that growing populations of Central and Eastern European foreigners have contributed to Western Europeans’ perception of immigration as an economic threat, even when taking into account simultaneous immigration from outside Europe. Moreover, the relationship between east–west immigration and an individual’s perception of immigration as a threat is conditional upon their socio-economic status. These findings underscore how within-European immigration in Western Europe has become consequential to the public’s attitudes about immigration more generally.

scholarly journals Conservation motivation, social equality and left-right ideological preferences in Western and Eastern Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márton Hadarics
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Great Part ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship

We investigated how attitudes towards social equality can influence the relationship between conservation motivation (or openness) and personal ideological preferences on the left-right dimension, and how this relationship pattern differs between Western and Central & Eastern European (CEE) respondents. Using data from the European Social Survey (2012) we found that individual-level of conservation motivation reduces cultural egalitarianism in both the Western European and the CEE regions, but its connection with economic egalitarianism is only relevant in the CEE region where it fosters economic egalitarianism. Since both forms of egalitarianism were related to leftist ideological preferences in Western Europe, but in the CEE region only economic egalitarianism was ideologically relevant, we concluded that the classic “rigidity of the right” phenomenon is strongly related to cultural (anti)egalitarianism in Western Europe. At the same time, conservation motivation serves as a basis for the “rigidity of the left” in the post-socialist CEE region, in a great part due to the conventional egalitarian economic views.

A Critique of the Consumption Cleavage Approach in British Voting Studies

1984 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark N. Franklin ◽  
Edward C. Page
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Voting Choice

In recent years the theory of consumption cleavages has progressed far towards supplanting traditional explanations of voting behaviour resting on socialization and issue-based electoral choice. What is not often realized is that the new theory cannot readily coexist with traditional explanations. If consumption cleavage theory is right then much of what we thought we understood about political behaviour is wrong; and the implications of this confrontation extend far beyond voting studies or even political science, to fields as diverse as anthropology and social psychology. In this paper it is argued that traditional explanations of voting choice have not been proved defective by the consumption cleavage theorists, nor has the proposed replacement been proved superior in this field of study. The consumption cleavage approach is questioned because its adoption would involve great sacrifices while offering little in return.

scholarly journals Why vote when you cannot choose? EU intervention and political participation in times of constraint

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-428
Author(s):  
Stuart J Turnbull-Dugarte
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Policy Alternatives ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Impact

This article analyses how economic intervention affects individuals’ political behaviour by assessing the impact of intervention on aggregate and individual turnout. The intervention of the European Union in a selection of member states is viewed as having negative consequences for democratic choice, reducing the ability of voters to select between distinct policy alternatives, resulting in the absence of the primary benefit of voting: choice. It is argued that when voters are faced with electoral choices without the ability to shape policy alternatives, they are less likely to vote. Moreover, the negative effect of intervention is found to be conditioned by both individuals’ level of education and ideological identification. Voters on the centre and the left who feel abandoned by left-leaning parties, who have prioritised being responsible to their European paymasters, are significantly more likely to abstain when exposed to intervention. Empirical support for the argument is found via the analysis of aggregate turnout as well as individual level data from the European Social Survey from across fifteen Western European states.

Making a Difference: Political Efficacy and Policy Preference Construction

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan ◽  
Eran Halperin
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Preference ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Preference Construction ◽  
Making A Difference ◽  
Original Survey

How does individual political efficacy affect the construction of policy preferences? This article presents a model of individual-level politicization of policy preference, which draws on psychological and political explanations and posits that greater external political efficacy results in a stronger effect of political ideology on concrete policy preference. Two empirical studies that test this hypothesis are reported: an original survey experiment conducted in Israel, and an analysis that relies on the 2002 wave of the European Social Survey. The empirical findings support the hypothesis. In contrast to the established conviction that no association exists between political efficacy and policy preferences, these findings reveal that external political efficacy has a polarizing effect on expressed policy preferences.

The Decline of Class Voting in Britain: Problems of Analysis and Interpretation

1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark N. Franklin ◽  
Anthony Mughan
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Simultaneous Estimation ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Modeling Techniques ◽  
Voting Choice

Social class has long been recognized as being the preeminent influence upon electoral choice in Britain, but recent studies provide support for the argument that it has become a weakened force. These studies differ only in the interpretation that they place on its decline. Through the simultaneous estimation of the effects on voting choice of class measured by occupation, and other variables, this article shows how one of the recent studies implied an overestimate of the declining importance of occupational class. Further it shows that when the indirect effects of class on party choice are taken into account, by means of causal modeling techniques, its preeminent position in determining voting choice in Britain can still be seen. The article seeks to clarify the nature of class-based voting behavior during a period of dramatic decline in this phenomenon, terminating at the last point at which traditional measures can reasonably be used.

The Strange Case of Welfare Chauvinism in Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
Marko Grdešić
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Native Population ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Eastern And Western Europe ◽  
The Welfare State

According to welfare chauvinism, access to the welfare state should be reserved for the native population, whereas immigrants are seen as a drain on resources. The curious aspect of welfare chauvinism in Europe is that it is more prevalent in the East. Why is this the case? This article uses the European Social Survey (ESS) and the Life in Transition Survey (LITS) in order to locate the most robust individual-level determinants of welfare chauvinism for countries of both Eastern and Western Europe. The results suggest that there is no support for the socioeconomic explanation of welfare chauvinism. There is support for the cultural capital explanation of welfare chauvinism, but only for Western Europe. Finally, there is support for the theory that higher levels of trust lessen the likelihood that a person adopts welfare chauvinism. This finding holds for both Eastern and Western Europe.

scholarly journals Party System Polarization, Citizenship, and Immigrant Party Allegiances in Western Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 019791832096270
Author(s):  
Aida Just
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Immigration Control ◽  
Chapel Hill ◽  
Party Policy Positions

This article examines the role of party system polarization in shaping immigrants’ party loyalties in their host country. It suggests that foreign-born individuals are more likely to become partisans when political parties take more distinct policy positions on immigration control. Moreover, this relationship is more pronounced among foreign-born non-citizens than foreign-born citizens. Using individual-level public opinion data from eight rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS), 2002–2017, and measures of party system polarization constructed using party policy positions from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) in 17 West European democracies, the analyses confirm these expectations. The findings presented here suggest that party polarization on immigration control enhances, rather than undermines, immigrant political integration in contemporary democracies.

scholarly journals Re-Imagining Social Mobility: The Role of Relationality, Social Class and Place in Qualitative Constructions of Mobility

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042098512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Folkes
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Mobility ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Occupational Position ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Key Techniques ◽  
Class Community

Discussions around social mobility have increasingly gained traction in both political and academic circles in the last two decades. The current, established conceptualisation of social mobility reduces ‘success’ down to individual level of educational achievement, occupational position and income, focusing on the successful few who rise up and move out. For many in working-class communities, this discourse is undesirable or antithetical to everyday life. Drawing upon 13 interviews with 9 families collected as part of an ethnographic study, this article asks, ‘how were social (im)mobility narratives and notions of value constructed by residents of one working-class community?’ Its findings highlight how alternative narratives of social (im)mobility were constructed; emphasising the value of fixity, anchorage, and relationality. Three key techniques were used by participants when constructing social (im)mobility narratives: the born and bred narrative; distancing from education as a route to mobility; and the construction of a distinct working-class discourse of fulfilment. Participants highlighted the value of anchorage to place and kinship, where fulfilment results from finding ontological security. The findings demonstrate that residents of a working-class community constructed alternative social mobility narratives using a relational selfhood model that held local value. This article makes important contributions to the theorisation of social mobility in which it might be understood as a collective rather than individual endeavour, improving entire communities that seek ontological security instead of social class movement and dislocation.

scholarly journals Review of Associations between Built Environment Characteristics and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection Risk

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7561
Author(s):  
Jingjing Wang ◽  
Xueying Wu ◽  
Ruoyu Wang ◽  
Dongsheng He ◽  
Dongying Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Infection Risk ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Transit Accessibility ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Transmission Pathways

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has stimulated intensive research interest in its transmission pathways and infection factors, e.g., socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, climatology, baseline health conditions or pre-existing diseases, and government policies. Meanwhile, some empirical studies suggested that built environment attributes may be associated with the transmission mechanism and infection risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, no review has been conducted to explore the effect of built environment characteristics on the infection risk. This research gap prevents government officials and urban planners from creating effective urban design guidelines to contain SARS-CoV-2 infections and face future pandemic challenges. This review summarizes evidence from 25 empirical studies and provides an overview of the effect of built environment on SARS-CoV-2 infection risk. Virus infection risk was positively associated with the density of commercial facilities, roads, and schools and with public transit accessibility, whereas it was negatively associated with the availability of green spaces. This review recommends several directions for future studies, namely using longitudinal research design and individual-level data, considering multilevel factors and extending to diversified geographic areas.

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