Social Class, Gender, and Sector Employment as Political Cleavages in Scandinavia

Abstract

Political cleavages in Western democracies have traditionally been connected to positions in the labour market. Dunng the last 10-15 years, research has established that the explanatory power of hierarchical status variables has been markedly reduced. The present study examines the relative importance of social class and two other structural cleavages which have been emphasized in recent political sociology: sector employment and gender. These vanables are studied in relation to vanous measures of political value priorities (interest-based left-right values, support for the welfare state, and materialist/post-materialist values) and party preference in a comparative Scandinavian context (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden). It is concluded that social class still has considerable impact. Sector employment has, however, approached social class as an important cleavage, while the impact of gender is relatively small.