The wind of no change

Union Effects on Partisan Preferences and the Working-Class Metamorphosis

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6405729
AutoresHadziabdic (0000-0001-5025-7515, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume48
Fascículo7
Páginas1573-1598
Data de publicação2025-11-10
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoWest European Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01402382.2024.2388481
OpenAlexW4401973003
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas47

Focusing on Germany and the United Kingdom as two most dissimilar cases in terms of labour market and political institutions, the article examines the impact of trade union membership on partisan preferences. Leveraging panel data to control for time-invariant selection effects shows that trade unions exert a small but consistent left-wing influence on wage earners who become affiliated, but they are no longer able to modify the preferences of working-class members. A longitudinal approach reveals that unions mainly attract individuals who already share the unions’ political inclinations before joining. The additional shift to the left experienced by already left-leaning new members is consistent with a value congruence mechanism triggered by interactions with even more left-leaning long-term union members. Symmetrically, working-class joiners exhibit less pronounced left-wing inclinations before becoming affiliated, a gap that widens further after they join. These findings imply that unions’ political influence and class allegiances have been both eroded and altered by changes in the labour market and political landscape

Biology · Class (philosophy · Economics · Metamorphosis · Political science · Politics · Working class · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Social Policy and Reform Studies