Persistent Political Divides, Electoral Volatility and Citizen Involvement
The Freezing Hypothesis in the 2004 European Election
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8041859 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabor Toka, Tania Gosselin |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 608-633 |
| Publication date | 2010-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | West European Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01402381003654619 |
| OpenAlex | W2147003863 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 23 |
This paper identifies possible micro-mechanisms for the operation of Lipset and Rokkan's freezing hypothesis and suggests that their effects do not disappear altogether with the decline of cleavage politics but are sustained by any persistent social or attitudinal divide between the electorates of different parties. A multi-level analysis of survey data from the 2004 European Election Study supports the expectation that political involvement should be consistently higher and volatility lower than otherwise expected among citizens who are predisposed to support particular parties because of their enduring attitudinal and social characteristics. This paper argues that this fact powerfully biases the choices of established parties towards appealing to those citizens who vote in a way that maintains existing political divides among groups in the electorate. This provides a new explanation of why the mobilisation of enduring social and attitudinal divides in the electorate makes party systems reflect past divides even when the conflicts that gave rise to them have lost some or all political relevance, for instance, because of a shift from the national to the European electoral arena. The analysis also provides additional insights into why European elections fail to produce a European party system and why sources of political participation and interest vary across countries
Cleavage (geology · Economics · European Social Survey · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Relevance (law · Survey data collection · Volatility (finance · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
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| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,75 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2024 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |