Empirical Application: The Class Cleavage

Abstract

In this chapter, the theoretical framework of the book is applied to the class cleavage line to show that the theory is generalizable not only to various points in time, but also to various cleavage lines, even simultaneously. Two exemplary elections will be analyzed in which labor market issues played a significant role, namely the 1994 election, in which mass unemployment was a major issue, and the 1987 election, where the issue of a recent reform of §116 AFG (Employment Promotion Act), regulating the right to strike, featured prominently on the campaign agenda. The results show that in both cases it is the group with more homogeneous and extreme interests that places more emphasis on the respective labor market issue, thus differing to a larger degree in its issue weighting pattern. In both empirical cases the equilibrium configurations based on the extended vote model predict more divergent policy positions and thus perform slightly better in mapping the empirical configuration of perceived party positions. This indicates that the consideration of the electorate’s cleavage structure contributes to our understanding of optimal party behavior when competing for votes in the multidimensional policy space.