Empiryczny test hipotezy o słabnącej krystalizacji systemów partyjnych
An Empirical Test of the Hypothesis Regarding Weakening Crystallization of Party Systems

Summary/Abstract: There are many arguments for the thesis according to which political views become “separated” from social structure, but there is also substantial evidence that the relation between them continues to exist and is not changing significantly over time. We refer to certain aspects of this process, using European Social Survey data of the years 2002-2010. The subject of our analysis is strength of the relation between voters’ preferences and electoral participation on the one hand and age, religion, immigration status and position in social hierarchy on the other in several countries in the indicated period. Our analysis results in the conclusion that political systems have a rather stable footing in social structure. In particular, there is no indication that in the years 2002-2010 the impact of social class on voters’ preferences was diminishing. Although class position is a relatively weak indicator of voters’ attitude, but the influence of religion, immigration and age is weaker still, even though these are taken to be the indicators of “new” social divisions, which supposedly blur traditional voting identities.

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