2025/02/25 by Anna-Sophie Kurella, Anna‐Sophie Kurella, Milena Rapp +1 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Social Media and Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/01402382.2025.2466117
New cultural policy issues, such as environmentalism, nationalism, and gender, have become well integrated into the two-dimensional structure of West European party systems. However, it remains uncertain whether a similar trend towards preference alignment exists among electorates. Studies on public opinion suggest that citizens’ attitudes are less ideologically constrained than parties’ policy packages. Nevertheless, much of the literature on voting takes voter alignment on new cultural issues as given. This study takes a step back to examine which policy dimensions shape public opinion and how these dimensions interrelate across a broad range of West European countries between 1990 and 2017. The results reveal strong regional patterns, but provide limited evidence of temporal alignment. Notably, nationalism does not strongly shape public opinion in Southern Europe, while gender roles form a weak dimension in Nordic countries. These results shed new light on the transformation of policy spaces.