Brahmin Left versus Merchant Right: Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948-2020 - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Pré-Publication, Document De Travail Année : 2021

Brahmin Left versus Merchant Right: Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948-2020

Résumé

This paper provides new evidence on the long-run evolution of political cleavages in 21 Western democracies by exploiting a new database on the vote by socioeconomic characteristic covering over 300 elections held between 1948 and 2020. In the 1950s-1960s, the vote for democratic, labor, social democratic, socialist, and affiliated parties was associated with lower-educated and low-income voters. It has gradually become associated with higher-educated voters, giving rise to "multi-elite party systems" in the 2000s-2010s: high-education elites now vote for the "left", while high-income elites continue to vote for the "right". This transition has been accelerated by the rise of green and anti-immigration movements, whose key distinctive feature is to concentrate the votes of the higher-educated and lower-educated electorate, respectively. Combining our database with historical data on political parties' programs, we provide evidence that the reversal of the educational cleavage is strongly linked to the emergence of a new "sociocultural" axis of political conflict. We also discuss the evolution of other political cleavages related to age, geography, religion, gender, and the integration of new ethnoreligious minorities.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
2021-15.pdf (2.63 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)

Dates et versions

halshs-03226118 , version 1 (14-05-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-03226118 , version 1

Citer

Amory Gethin, Clara Martínez-Toledano, Thomas Piketty. Brahmin Left versus Merchant Right: Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948-2020. 2021. ⟨halshs-03226118⟩
1893 Consultations
1771 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More