Party Systems and Voter Alignments

Section 2.2 discussed this study’s relevance for econometric analyses of voter behaviour. Section 2.3 discussed its relevance for analyses of political parties. Lipset and Rokkan is one of the best-known analyses of the relationship between party systems and voter alignments (party support) (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967). Lipset and Rokkan hypothesise that Western party systems and voter alignments reflect social cleavages. Cleavages are "the criteria which divide members of a community into groups. Relevant cleavages divide members into groups with important political differences" (Rae and Taylor, 1970p.23); (Eckstein, 1966p.34); (Daalder, 1966pp.67-68); (Zuckerman, 1977pp.233-234); (Zuckerman, 1982).

Specifically, Lipset and Rokkan hypothesise that party systems and voter alignments in Western democracies are the result of a National Revolution and an Industrial Revolution. Each revolution created two cleavages. The National Revolution created a centre-periphery (regional) and a Church-state (religious) cleavage. The Industrial Revolution produced an agriculture-industry (rural-urban) and an owner-worker (class) cleavage. Cleavage theory expects that during the course of industrialisation the class cleavage will supercede traditional (regional, religious and rural-urban) cleavages (Rokkan, 1970).

Empirical research confirms that these four types of cleavage account for patterns of party and voter alignments in Western democracies after 1945 (Alford, 1963); (Rose and Urwin, 1969); (Lijphart, 1968); (Lijphart, 1979). Other studies analyse the extent to which this hypothesis applies to politics after 1960. These studies argue that advanced industrialism may be creating a new ("postmaterialist") cleavage and changing party and voter alignments. Unparalleled prosperity has significantly altered the social structure of Western democracies (Bell, 1973); (Dahl and Tufte, 1973); (Verba, Nie and Kim, 1978). At the same time, a new ("postmaterialist") set of issue concerns, which cut across traditional (religious, occupational) alignments of parties and voters, has arisen in these countries (Barnes and Kaase, 1979); (Inglehart,

1977); (Inglehart, 1981).

The eclipse of one cleavage by another cleavage, as well as the existence of orthogonal cleavages, poses problems for political parties. Not unexpectedly, therefore, the postmaterialist cleavage has introduced tensions into Western democratic party systems. As a result, many parties were initially unable or unwilling to respond fully to the "postmaterialist" demands placed upon them (Baker, Dalton and Hil­ debrandt, 1981); (Berger, 1979). Further, some studies find that the social and psychological bonds that heretofore bound voters to parties have fragmented, thereby throwing these party systems into a state of flux (Daalder, 1983) (Mayer, 1980). Other studies note signs of a re-alignment of voters and parties along post-materialist lines (Ladd with Hadley, 1975); (Miller and Levitin, 1976); (Kemp, 1978). Most sig­ nificantly, a third set of studies relates the increased salience of the postmaterialist cleavage to the formation of new political parties (Dalton, Flanagan and Beck, 1984pp.463-467); (Mair, 1983).

Generally speaking, this study’s results are consistent with the expectations of the cleavage hypothesis. They suggest that, in the years immediately following the First World War, an agricultural economic cleavage became a salient aspect of electoral politics in Australia, and that this cleavage cross-cut the prevailing (religious and occupational) alignment of voters and parties. This cross-cutting cleavage posed formidable problems for the Nationalist Party and Australian Labor Party. These parties were unable to aggregate the demands engendered by this cleavage into their ranks. Accordingly, this cleavage formed the basis of a new party. A decrease in the salience of this cleavage in particular states at particular elections precipitated the dissolution of the Country Party.

130

Rokkan model. The Country Party did not owe its existence to a centre-periphery (regional) cleavage. At elections, voters in rural Australia did not vote as a monolithic bloc: indeed, in 1922, 1925 and 1928, partisan support in subdivisions with Country Party candidates was relatively evenly divided between the three parties — with a majority of voters thus continuing to support one of the major parties. Nor was the formation of the Country Party a consequence of a religious cleavage: only in subdivisions without a Nationalist Party candidate in House of Representatives elections did the Country Party receive dis­ proportionate electoral support from a particular religious denomination (the Church of England). Nor was it the consequence of an agriculture-industry (urban-rural) or an owner-worker (class) cleavage: whilst drawing its most consistent support from primary producers, and whilst being firmly and consis­ tently rejected by employees in secondary industry, the Country Party failed to win the allegiance of all primary producers. The Country Party, in short, was not a product of a cleavage between agriculture and industry or between the urban centre and the rural hinterland: it was a consequence of an agricultural economic cleavage among primary producers within rural Australia.

None of the commonly-cited cleavages, in other words, adequately characterises the alignment of parties and voters which was observed in rural Australia between 1922 and 1928. This result is not surprising: consensus with respect to the necessary and sufficient conditions for the presence of a cleavage, or with respect to a typology of cleavages, does not exist (Lane and Ersson, 1987p.45). This study may thus identify a shortcoming in the manner in which this concept is currently operationalised. It suggests that the term "cleavage" need not refer exclusively to voters’ ascriptive characteristics (i.e., to race, religion, language, ethnicity, occupation, rural or urban residence); it may also encompass their economic characteristics (such as the agricultural commodities they produce and the means by which they produce these commodities). Cleavages not be exclusively sociological phenomena.

7.23. Elite Mobilisation

This study successfully predicts the source of the Country Party’s electoral support and the timing of its formation and partial dissolution. It demonstrates that rural voter dissatisfaction with the major parties provided the base upon which its formation and mass support was built. At the same time, however, it finds that Country Party formation and electoral was associated with the actions of an elite stratum of voters: the Business variable was among the most important determinants of Country Party formation and electoral support at the 1922,1925 and 1928 Commonwealth elections.

For two reasons, few citizens participate actively in politics: apart from voting, "homo civicus is not a political animal" (Dahl, 1966p.225); (Verba and Nie, 1972); (Verba and Nie, 1972); (Nie and Verba, 1975). First, acts of political participation vary considerably in intensity (i.e., the level of initiative required of citizens and the level of political conflict to which it exposes citizens) and thus demand different levels of emotional commitment. Low-intensity ("spectator") activities, such as voting, require little initiative and make few demands upon participants. Medium-intensity ("transitional") activities, such as volunteer work in political campaigns, require greater initiative and impose greater demands upon participants. High-intensity ("gladiator") activities, such as standing as a candidate for public office, require great initiative and make very great demands upon participants. Not surprisingly, therefore, the extent of any political activity varies inversely with its intensity (Milbrath and Goel, 1977).

Secondly, spectator, transitional and gladiator activities differ in kind as well as in intensity. They require participants to possess progressively greater physical, cognitive and psychological resources (Mishler, 1979p.21); (Verba and Nie, 1972). Citizens with higher-status occupations possess these

resources in greatest abundance: they are more highly educated, are exposed to more political stimuli and thus have greater political skills. Similarly, better-educated citizens are more interested in politics and are more knowledgeable about politics: the more one understands about politics the better-equipped one is to participate in politics (Milbrath and Goel, 1977). For these reasons, gladiators are composed dispropor­ tionately of better-educated individuals in higher-status occupations.

This study’s results seem to corroborate these findings. The Country Party’s formation and electoral support, in other words, was associated with the actions of rural elites: these elites focussed rural voters’ dissatisfaction against the major parties, proposed remedies to rural economic difficulties and mobilised mass dissatisfaction against the major parties [see also (Rosenstone, Behr and Lazarus, 1984pp. 188-214)].