This presentation will discuss how ordinary citizens across ten Western democracies understand the economic and cultural divides that structure electoral politics.
Political scientists widely agree that party competition in Western democracies unfolds along two dimensions, one economic and one cultural. But do voters see politics the same way? Drawing on original surveys fielded in France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, Noam Gidron and Thomas Tichelbaecker will present their analysis of open-ended responses to explore what citizens actually associate with each dimension.
Their findings point to several two-dimensional spaces rather than one. The meaning of the dimensions shifts from country to country, with immigration and environmental issues varying most widely; it differs by age, as older respondents tend to frame the cultural divide around immigration and younger ones around LGBT rights and sexism; and it separates left from right, with inequality anchoring the economic dimension on the left and immigration shaping both dimensions on the right.
They will also show that, however useful the analytical distinction, economic and cultural concerns are often fused in how people reason about politics, particularly when they talk about inequality. Published in the Cambridge Elements in European Politics series, the book they will discuss offers new insights into the study of public opinion, ideology, and electoral competition in Europe and beyond.
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