Party Polarization and Citizens' Left—Right Orientations

Abstract

The article investigates the differences among West European countries in terms of the degree to which individuals' left—right self-placement is anchored in social, value and partisan factors. The study shows that clarity of party alternatives is much more important than political socialization in structuring citizens' left—right attitudes, i.e. the greater the clarity of party alternatives, the more structured the left—right orientations of citizens. As a first step in the investigation, the article seeks to show that the relative weights of social factors in explaining individual left—right self-placement, vis-à-vis values and partisan loyalties, are important, contrary to the poor results of previous studies.