Religious Cleavages, Divisions on the Left and the Political Economy of Southern Europe

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7990890
AutoresPhilip Manow (0000-0002-7154-7789, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume3
Fascículo2
Data de publicação2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal of Social Quality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1757-0344 • E-ISSN: 1757-0352
EditoraBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/ijsq.2013.030205
OpenAlexW2335477231
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9

The article addresses the relationship between party systems and welfare state regimes in Europe. It argues that the European party systems show a systematic variation with respect to the electoral success of communist parties – which is argued to be related to the intensity of past conflicts between the nation-state and the Catholic Church in the mono-confessional countries of Europe's south. The article presents empirical evidence for the manifestation of the pro-clerical/anti-clerical cleavage in the party systems of Southern Europe and sketches the consequences for the political economy of these countries. The article demonstrates the impact of religious cleavages (rather than the conflict between capital and labor) on the shape of social policy in a country. The Southern European variety of the welfare state differs markedly from the Continental and Northern European varieties, with fragmented and particularistic provisions, decentralized occupation-based social security, strong insider-outsider cleavages and a weak state. This testifies to the broad range of meanings the "social" may assume

Economics · Economy · Political science · Politics · Law · Religion and Society Interactions