Social Cleavages and Political Change Voter Alignment and U.S. Party Coalitions

by Manza, Jeff; Brooks, Clem

• ISBN13: 9780198294924
• ISBN10: 0198294921
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What social groups support which political party, and how that support has changed over time, are central questions in the sociology of political behaviour. This study provides the first systematic book-length reassessment and restatement of the sociological approach to American politics inmore than 20 years. It challenges widespread arguments that the importance of social cleavages have declined precipitously in recent years in the face of post-industrial social and economic changes. The book reconceptualizes the concept of social cleavages and focus on four major cleavages in American society: class, religion, gender, and race, arguing a that a number of important changes in the alignments of the groups making up these four cleavages have occurred. The book examines the implications of these changes for the Democratic and Republican Parties. The findings of the book are examined in light of the central dilemmas facing the two major parties in the contemporary political environment.

Author Biography

Jeff Manza is Associate Professor of Sociology and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University
Clem Brooks is Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington

Table of Contents

List of Figures	viii
List of Tables	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
The Sociological Tradition in Political Behavior Research	9	(22)
Social Cleavages and American Politics	31	(18)
Class	49	(36)
Religion	85	(43)
Gender	128	(27)
Race and the Social Bases of Voter Alignments	155	(21)
Party Coalitions	176	(25)
Social Cleavages in the 1996 Election	201	(16)
Third Party Candidates	217	(14)
Conclusion	231	(12)
Notes	243	(63)
Bibliography	306	(29)
Index	335