Western European Party Systems and the Religious Cleavage
Thomas Ertman
Karl Marx has long cast his shadow over the study of European political development. Beginning with appearance Barrington Moore's classic The Social Origins Dictatorship and Democracy, leading theorists long-term change in Western Europe have centered their analyses around class actors coalitions. More recently, however, newer explorations comparative party formation consolidation begun to take into account central role played by religious conflict across continent during 19th 20th centuries. Although such conflicts led creation large powerful ‘parties defense’ Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, no parties emerged Britain, France, Iberian peninsula, or Scandinavia, despite high levels tension there. Instead, these latter cases, cleavages were absorbed existing, often bipolar, landscapes. As Philip Manow Kees van Kersbergen argue Chapter 1, differences configuration respect religion, when combined effects contrasting electoral regimes, go a way toward explaining variations welfare states found later century. Building on writings Stein Rokkan more recent studies Hans Righart, Stathis Kalyvas, Andrew Gould, this contribution will attempt for divergent ways which both religion came shape systems between Congress Vienna World War II.
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