Define Social Cleavages in Western Europe

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Define Social Cleavages in Western Europe
Social cleavage is the potential lines of division within the society that explains the differing fundamental conflicts in democracy system and its influence on the political party system. It is the division of voters into various voting blocs based on politics. The major social cleavages in Western Europe include center vs. Periphery, state vs. church, and vs. industry. In Western Europe countries, social cleavage shows how the elections and voting units of particular parties are influenced by social structures like territorial identity, region, language, urban-rural, race, religion, social class and party choice (Hutter, 13). Societal inputs and its interaction with various political institutions shape the political process in the European nations.
Western Europe countries differ from each other on social cleavages. In the United Kingdom, social cleavage is based on the influence of various social factors like race, religion, class, and ethnicity towards politics. The United Kingdom believes in maintaining the tradition of liberal democracy whereby the parties are also elected by religion specifically the Christian tradition of the Anglican Church (Knutsen, 13). Also, the candidate for a particular party is chosen based on gender, age, party support, religion, and education. In Germany, social cleavage is based on the freedom and integration given to people based on the class and political behavior.

The party politics cleavage is underpinned and embodied more by the social cleavages whereby the social structures influence the political decisions made. Immigration has a direct relationship with the social cleavages and political system in Germany. Voters have profoundly shifted their allegiance to radical rights parties whereby the immigrants have influenced the politicization of the issue (Hutter, 21). In France, social cleavage is based on the patterns of convergence between the class and religion which shapes the nature of political parties’ competition (Knutsen, 32). Additionally, in France, the minority and majority population determine the party system and the outcome of the election. The right-wing parties in France have attracted growing support within the working class in France making them more popular politics. Hence, change in social stratifications are the reasons for the decline in social-class conflicts politics in the Western Europe nations especially Germany and Great Britain.
Works Cited
Hutter, Swen. Protesting culture and economics in Western Europe: New cleavages in left and right politics. University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Knutsen, Oddbjørn. Social structure, value orientations, and party choice in western Europe. Springer, 2017.