Brahmin Left Versus Merchant Right: Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948–2020
Amory Gethin
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1093259
Clara Martínez-Toledano
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1097703
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8394-5055
- IdRef : 249096285
Thomas Piketty
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1256308
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1261-2392
- IdRef : 033197563
Résumé
This article sheds new light on the long-run evolution of political cleavages in 21 Western democracies. We exploit a new database on the socioeconomic determinants of the vote, covering more than 300 elections held between 1948 and 2020. In the 1950s and 1960s, the vote for 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 in the 2010s to a disconnection between the effects of income and education on the vote: higher-educated voters now vote for the “left,” while high-income voters continue to vote for the “right.” This transition has been accelerated by the rise of green and anti-immigration movements, whose distinctive feature is to concentrate the votes of the higher-educated and lower-educated electorates. Combining our database with historical data on political parties’ programs, we provide evidence that the reversal of the education cleavage is strongly linked to the emergence of a new “sociocultural” axis of political conflict.
Domaines
Economies et financesFormat du dépôt | Notice |
---|---|
Type de dépôt | Article dans une revue |
Titre |
en
Brahmin Left Versus Merchant Right: Changing Political Cleavages in 21 Western Democracies, 1948–2020
|
Résumé |
en
This article sheds new light on the long-run evolution of political cleavages in 21 Western democracies. We exploit a new database on the socioeconomic determinants of the vote, covering more than 300 elections held between 1948 and 2020. In the 1950s and 1960s, the vote for 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 in the 2010s to a disconnection between the effects of income and education on the vote: higher-educated voters now vote for the “left,” while high-income voters continue to vote for the “right.” This transition has been accelerated by the rise of green and anti-immigration movements, whose distinctive feature is to concentrate the votes of the higher-educated and lower-educated electorates. Combining our database with historical data on political parties’ programs, we provide evidence that the reversal of the education cleavage is strongly linked to the emergence of a new “sociocultural” axis of political conflict.
|
Auteur(s) |
Amory Gethin
1, 2
, Clara Martínez-Toledano
3
, Thomas Piketty
1, 2
1
PSE -
Paris School of Economics
( 301309 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
2
PJSE -
Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques
( 578027 )
- 48 boulevard Jourdan 75014 Paris
- France
3
Imperial College London
( 69530 )
- South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ
- Royaume-Uni
|
Public visé |
Scientifique
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Langue du document |
Anglais
|
Nom de la revue |
|
Vulgarisation |
Non
|
Comité de lecture |
Oui
|
Audience |
Internationale
|
Date de publication |
2022-02
|
Volume |
137
|
Numéro |
1
|
Page/Identifiant |
1-48
|
Licence |
Paternité
|
Domaine(s) |
|
Mots-clés (JEL) |
|
DOI | 10.1093/qje/qjab036 |
UT key WOS | 000743312400001 |
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