A social cleavage is, “a division which affects the fundamentals of politics and which is relatively long-lasting” (G. Roberts). Parties base themselves on social cleavages in order to mobilise support.5 Cleavages differ from country to country, and this in turn partially accounts for variation in types of party system in different countries. However, Sartori’s “Four Basic Cleavage Dimensions” are left v. right, secular v. denominational, ethnicity v. integration, and democratic v. authoritarian divisions. However, bases of social cleavages, for example class, ethnicity or religion, have different relative importance in different countries. Mair states that: “many western countries have long histories, and are based on ideological, religious or ethnic solidarity.” In the case of Germany, these cleavages stem from the historical cleavage between north and south (Prussia and Bavaria) during the time of Bismarck and the struggle for unification until 1890. This cleavage is closely linked to the religious cleavage, that is, catholic south and protestant north. Although this division is not so acute now, there remains division between East and West Germany, even after reunification in 1990. East Germany had communist, one-party regime, whereas West Germany established a system of parliamentary democracy with free contending political parties. The political institutions of reunified Germany are similar to those of the former West Germany. Closely related to the historical cleavage between east and west Germany is the class cleavage. The political consequences of this cleavage included the rise of the SPD. In 1990, for example, the SPD gained the votes of 60% of manual workers, while 60% of the self-employed and professional workers voted for the more conservative CDU/CSU.6 In the UK, the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century can be said to have created class cleavages. Also in the UK, there tended to be a north-south divide on the basis of class, although the distinction is not so clear in the present day. In Britain post-World War II, there was evidently working-class and middle-class. Today, due to the rise in the service sector and self-employment, and the decline in the manufacturing industry, there is a rapidly expanding middle-class.7 Despite the evolution of the traditional “old” Labour Party, which mainly represented the working class, into a bigger catch-all party, it can be argued that voting patterns in the UK are still based for many on social class. However, it can be argued that there is weakening partisanship with regard to the two main parties (Labour and Conservative), due to dissatisfaction and the opinion that there is little difference between them.8 In Germany, both the CDU/CSU and SPD are increasingly centrist and aim to appeal to the wider electorate. This has not always been the case, as the SPD was officially a socialist worker’s party until 1959. The long period of CDU/CSU dominance during the post-war “economic miracle” in West Germany made it difficult for the SPD, who were officially anti-capitalism, to gain votes, and they were forced to move towards the centre after dropping their Marxist character in 1959.
Ethnicity can also be said to be a social cleavage related to class, language and religious cleavages. In Germany, the main ethnic minority is the Turkish, as many families were invited as “Gastarbeiter” after World War II. However, many Turkish immigrants do not have citizenship and so cannot vote. In the UK, however, the citizenship issue is not so acute since many ethnic groups are firmly established. The UK has a large diversity of ethnic groups, including Indian, Pakistani, Caribbean, and the Scottish, Welsh, English and Irish that constitute the nations of the UK. There are territorial or peripheral cleavages in the UK that are very prominent. Scotland and Wales oppose English dominance, and Ireland, Wales and Scotland all have independence movements and parties, for example Plaid Cymru in Wales and the Scottish National Party of Scotland. Language in particular is an issue for Welsh nationalists. Lipset and Rokkan state: there is a hierarchy of cleavage bases in each system and these order of political primacy not only vary among politics, but also undergo changes over time.” This can be applied to the Scottish and Welsh independence movements, which were first prominent in the 1970s and reappeared in the mid-1990s.
Other factors include changes in ideology across Europe, particularly after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Increasingly, old materialist concerns are giving way to new, post-materialist concerns. This is reflected in the German party system, for example, with the rise of the Green Party, which is predominantly concerned with environmental issues. Since there is a broad consensus about the need for a mixed economy and welfare state in both Germany and Britain, new, post-materialist concerns include tax issues, actual social equality and even concerns about world climate changes. On the whole, however, UK and German parties today appeal nationally to the electorate. A mass following indicates the party successfully transcends social cleavages,9 even though they still exist. Social cleavages are important because parties base themselves on them in order to gain support. However, certain constitutional considerations may affect their success – the electoral system is one such consideration:
In the UK, a simple majority system is used in single-member districts. Under the ‘First Past the Post’ voting system, the candidate with the most votes wins. This is likely to produce distorted results, and sets in Parliament can be highly disproportionate to the number of seats won. For example, Thatcher won 62% of the seats in the House of Commons with 42% of the vote.10 The stronger the government, the weaker the Parliament. Because this simple majority system produces distorted results, most West European countries on the continent use some form of proportional representation (PR). In Germany, the system is a proportional one, in which half the seats are allocated by plurality in single-member districts (as in Britain), and half by PR.11 The PR half, therefore, is compensatory. PR is often criticised as a platform for extremist parties, but Germany has a 5% voting threshold, or minimum of three district seats, below which there is no representation. The UK does not have such a provision. In addition to the 5% clause, the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany is empowered by the Basic Law to ban any party which is deemed anti-democratic. In Germany, the electoral system means that political parties have to form coalitions to build a governing majority. Furthermore, the centrist tendencies of the German electorate have led to the main parties vying for the centre ground. Since it is unlikely that the two main parties (the CDU/CSU and the SPD) will gain a majority, the smaller party, the FDP, therefore has a pivotal role, since effectively it is the FDP that decides who to enter a coalition with. Although it seems that the electorate has a small role to play in the formation of government, political parties enjoy a high status and play a significant role – the Basic Law states that parties should “participate in forming the political will of the people.”12 This aspect of the party system makes the German system different from the British system, where the most emphasis is placed on political parties’ representative function. From the British and in particular the German examples, it can be said that the electoral system is a major influence on party and government formation, and consequently on the party system itself.
Party systems differ greatly due to a variety of factors, the main one being the various social cleavages in each country. Cleavages differ in their relative importance in each country and this is reflected by the differing effects the cleavages have on the party systems of different countries. For example, the class cleavage is still fairly significant in Britain, and this is reflected by the establishment of the Labour Party (traditionally the party of the working class) in the early twentieth century, and the development of the Tory Party into the Conservative Party, which traditionally represented the upper and increasingly middle class voters. Also in Germany, the SPD remains the party of the majority of the working class, whereas the CDU/CSU enjoys more support from the middle classes. In the UK, this ideological division and the first past the post electoral system has led to the development of a two-party system. In Germany, it is more the electoral system that has affected the party system, because its additional member system (a proportional representation system) means that seats are allocated according to votes. As is often the case with a proportional system, it is very hard in Germany to gain an overall majority. It has only happened once, when the CDU/CSU managed it in 1957.13 Electoral systems, majoritarian and proportional, do account for much of the variation in party systems across western Europe. Cleavages can be quite influential but they do also lose their saliency, and this, along with changes in the nature of the electorate and social values in each country, means that party systems in West European countries vary.
Bibliography:
Budge, Ian, and Kenneth Newton et al., The Politics of the New Europe Atlantic to Urals, New York: Longman Publishing, 1997.
Macridis, Roy, Modern Political Systems, Englewood Cliffs, New.Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1990.
Mair, Peter, West European Party System, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Roberts, Geoffrey, European Politics Today,
Smith, Gordon et al., Developments in German Politics, London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1992
1 Jean Blondel, “Types of Party System,” in Peter Mair, ed., West European Party System, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 307.
2 Budge, Ian, and Kenneth Newton et al., The Politics of the New Europe Atlantic to Urals, (New York: Longman Publishing, 1997), 228
3 Blondel, “Types of Party System,” 304-306.
4 Stuart Piercy, “To what extent has the German electoral system shaped its party system?” (www.psr.keele.ac.uk/elections.htm)
6 Piercy, “To what extent has the German electoral system shaped its party system?”
7 Roy Macridis, Modern Political Systems, (Englewood Cliffs, New.Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1990), 21
9 Seymor Lipset and Stein Rokkan, “Cleavage Structures and Party Systems,” in Peter Mair, ed., West European Party System, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 93.
11 Gordon Smith et al., Developments in German Politics, (London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1992), 55
12 Piercy, “To what extent has the German electoral system shaped its party system?”
13 Piercy, “To what extent has the German electoral system shaped its party system?”
