The Historical Legacy

1
The Historical Legacy
Lecture 3
Commonalities and diversities of WE polities The
Lipset-Rokkan model Advantages and limitations of
the LRM
2
Objective

• to establish the groundwork for understanding
  the commonalties and the differences among West
  European polities on the basis of their
  historical development

3
Introduction
How do people develop their political
preferences? How can voting behaviour be
explained? What explains the relative stability
of party identification?
Hypothesis 1 Class belongingness and reaction to
immediate issues Hypothesis 2 Historical
cleavages
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Commonalties and Diversities among West European
Polities

• Commonalities
• Liberal democratic systems
• Political unity as a state
• Sense of common identity

• Diversities
• Historical experience
• Internal revolution
• Institutional structure
• Internal conflicts
• Political parties

• Historical links
• Christian Church (universalistic approach)
• Intellectual diffusion
• Trade
• Elite inter-marriage
• War

5
Starting points

• Rokkans comparative survey on political
  participation (1956)
• How to explain Western European political systems
  (e.g. why some countries have conservative
  parties, others Christian democratic parties?)
• How to explain voting preferences (e.g. what
  explains the relative system stability since the
  1920s?)
• Rokkan found differences which did not correspond
  with micro-level (age, profession, level of
  education)
• Explanation more fruitful through macro-level
  analysis religious structure, education system
• Looked back deep in European history and found
  common division lines

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The Lipset-Rokkan Model

• Stein Rokkan
• (1921-1979)

Seymour Lipset (1922-2006)
Central claims
The historicity of party alternatives is of
crucial importance () in the study of
differences and similarities across nations.
Politics of WE states are the products of three
revolutions - Reformation and Counter-Reformation
- French Revolution - Industrial
Revolution Revolutions struck countries at
different times and different conditions
?
?
?
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Revolutions and cleavages
Reformation and 1648 settlement
16th century
French Revolution
Peripheries vs. Centre
Secular state vs. Church
Industrial Revolution
20th century
Rural/agricultural vs. industrial interests
Workers vs. owners
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Is any (old) conflict a cleavage?

• Durable conflict (persists for decades/centuries)
• Must affect large groups of people
• Important for daily lives
• Usually one is born into a cleavage group,
  lifetime membership

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What is the link between cleavages and parties?

• How can movements come to power?
• Four thresholds
• Legitimacy (Conspiracy?)
• Incorporation (Voting rights?)
• Representation (merge with others?)
• (Majority) Power (affect policies?)
• Alliance between elites of relevant groups and
  party (often overlap)

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Revolutions, issues and cleavages
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Religious Situation in Europe (ca. 1560)
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Europe after the Reformation (16th century)

• Three-partition
• 1) Protestant northern Europe DK (N, Island), S
  (FIN), Prussia
• alliance between nation-builders und state
  church
• 2) Confessionally mixed countries in Central
  Europe NL, CH, Centre of HRE, GB, Irl and F
  until 1685
• protestant dominance in political elites of
  nation-builders, strong catholic minorities
  (F catholic dominance)
• 3) Catholic countries in southern and central
  Europe Spain, Italian territories, Habsburg
  Empire, France after 1685
• Alliance between roman- catholic church and
  Ancien Régime

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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model three
revolutions

• 1. Reformation ( Counter-Reformation) and
  state-building
• State-building
• Elite response centre building
• Top-down approach manifestation of state
  borders, central administration, national
  language, standardization of culture
• opposition from periphery

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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model three
revolutions

• I. Centre-periphery cleavage

1) Protestant northern Europe regional
parties (language, ethnicity, identity) 2)
Confessionally mixed countries regional
parties (language, ethnicity identity,
confession) 3) Catholic countries regional
parties (language, ethnicity, identity)
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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model- Three
Revolutions 2. French Revolution -

• 2. French Revolution
• democratic revolution/ national revolution
• conflicts church/state or clerical/anti-clerical
• elite response
• church-state alliance
• state dominance
• confessionally divided states
• secularisation

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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model three
revolutions

• II. State-church cleavage
• 1 ) Protestant northern Europe
• no state-church cleavage, churches as agents
  of the state, almost no Christian parties, no
  anti-church left
• 2) Confessionally mixed countries
• lasting polarisation between liberal/protestant
  nation-builders and catholic minorities,
  emergence of Christian/catholic parties
• 3) Catholic countries
• As a result of French Revolution deep conflict
  between radical-liberal/secular/anti-clerical
  left and conservative catholic right
  (counter-revolution), emergence of catholic
  parties

ROME
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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model three
revolutions

• 3. Industrial Revolution
• conflicts agrarian/industrial interests
• owning class/working class
• elite response alliance with land / alliance with
  industry

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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model three
revolutions
III. Rural - Urban cleavage

• 1) Protestant northern Europe
• deep urban/land cleavage (urban elites as
  nation-builders) Scandinavia Emergence of
  strong agrarian parties
• Prussia integration of land population in
  conservative alliances (landowners belong to
  nation-builders)
• 2) Confessionally mixed countries
• Agrarian interests accommodated by catholic or
  conservative parties
• No or weak agrarian parties (Britain, German
  Empire)
• 3) Catholic countries
• Agrarian interests accommodated by catholic
  mass parties
• No independent agrarian parties

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The Lipset-Rokkan developmental model three
revolutions
IV. OWNING CLASS/WORKING CLASS

• 1) Protestant northern Europe
• Strongly unified workers movement and parties
  (Scandinavia early integration into national
  community)
• 2) Confessionally mixed countries
• partial overlap between religious and
  cultural-territorial cleavages (cross pressures)
  that eased class struggle (parts of the German
  Empire)
• 3) Catholic countries
• Politically alienated/radical working class,
  not integrated in national community deep
  state-church cleavage (Italy, Spain, France)

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LIPSET-ROKKAN MODEL 3 dichotomies

• I Reformation Counter Reformation

state dominates church 1-4
state allied to catholic church 5-8
II French Revolution (national, democratic)
nation state national church 1-2
nation state strong catholic minority 3-4
secularising revolution 5-6
state allied to catholic church 7-8
III Industrial Revolution (state dominated by
commitment to interests of)
land 1 Britain
urban 2 Scandi- navia
land 7 Austria
land 5 Spain
land 3 Prussia
urban 6 Italy Spain
urban 4 Nether- lands
urban 8 Belgium
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Summary Tenets of the LRM

• In order to understand todays party politics in
  WE we need to go back to the 16th century
• Party identification often a result of divisions
  (social, ideological, organisational)
• The relative stability of party politics is a
  result of long-established societal structures
  and interests
• Cleavages are the roots of mass politics in WE,
  based on three historical turning points
  (revolutions)
• Four cleavages 1. centre-periphery, 2.
  church-state, 3. urban-rural, 4. social class
• Analytical concepts of cleavage, mobilisation,
  and incorporation

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Summary Limitations of the LRM

• Very broad approach
• (Cannot explain developments on a single-country
  basis)
• Does not account for many important changes in WE
  after 1970