Social Structure, Value Orientations and Party Choice in Western Europe

Description

This book analyses the impact of socio-structural variables, such as social class, religion, urban/rural residence, age and gender, on influencing an individual’s voting preferences. There have been major changes in recent decades both to social structure and how social structure determines people’s voting behaviour. There has also been a shift in value orientations, for example from religious to secular values and from more authoritarian to libertarian values. The author addresses the questions: How do social structure and value orientations influence party choice in advanced industrial democracies?; To what extent is the impact of social structure on party choice transmitted via value orientations?; To what extent is the impact of value orientations on party choice causal effects when controlled for the prior structural variables? The book will be of use to advanced students and scholars in the fields of comparative politics, electoral politics and political sociology. Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction and Presentation of the Research Problems (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 1-32 The Data Set and the Party Systems of the 18 Countries (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 33-58 Socio-structural Variables and Value Orientations (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 59-110 Party Choice and Social Structure (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 111-194 Party Choice and Value Orientations (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 195-239 The Impact of Social Structure and Value Orientations Compared (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 241-263 Conclusions (Oddbjørn Knutsen)....Pages 265-273 Back Matter ....Pages 275-303