Partisan Dealignment in Germany: A Rejoinder to Russell Dalton

Abstract

The work of Russell Dalton has undoubtedly played a seminal role in the study of the relation between political sophistication and partisan dealignment. We furthermore acknowledge the presence of a consensus on the occurrence of lower levels of partisanship in Germany. Using panel data as well as pooled cross-sectional observations, however, it is clear that generational replacement is not the sole driving force of partisan dealignment, but that period effects should also be taken into account. While on an aggregate level rising levels of politica l sophistication have occurred simultaneously with decreasing partisanship, individual level analysis suggests clearly that the least sophisticated are most likely to feel alienated from the party system. We close with some very specific suggestion on how to address the democratic consequences of declining levels of partisanship.

Patterns of (de)politicization in times of crisis: Swiss residents' political engagement, 1999–2020

“…On the other hand, rising educational levels and facilitated access to political information may also trigger a process of "cognitive mobilization" (Inglehart, 1977;Dalton, 1984;Berglund et al, 2005). In a nutshell, the skills which are required for exerting political influence are no longer delegated to (and thus controlled by) political organizations; rather, these skills are (re)appropriated by ordinary citizens, who are now better able to "reach their own political decisions without reliance of affective, habitual party cues or other external cues" (Dalton, 2007: p. 276; but see Albright, 2009;Dassonneville et al, 2014). Importantly, this bypassing of traditional partisan intermediation channels is reflective of an aspiration to "new ways of doing politics" which coincided with the surge of new social movements in the 1960s and 1970s and their commitment to unconventional forms of political participation (e.g., Barnes and Kaase, 1979;Kitschelt, 1986).…”

Age, period and cohort effects in a dealigned electorate: comparing late deciders and vote switchers

“…Dassonneville et al, 2012). In contrast, these works have found that period effects should be taken into account (Dassonneville et al, 2014). On the other, studies on critical elections that took place in the aftermath of the Great Recession have found that these contextual or period effects have been of utmost importance in shaping electoral and party system change (e.g.…”

“…On the one hand, and according to the literature on life‐cycle and cohort effects, volatility and indecision are expected to be found among younger generations as well as among young individuals (e.g., Dassonneville, 2017; van der Brug & Rekker, 2021; Rekker, 2022). On the other hand, we draw on more recent literature questioning these long‐term time effects and emphasising the growing importance of context, in particular the impact of external and short‐term shocks (Dassonneville et al, 2012, 2014; Dassonneville, 2013). In this respect, we investigate the compatibility of both period and cohort‐effects in explaining electoral indecision and vote switching, arguing that the former is more important than general replacement in accounting for voter dealignment.…”

Direct social action beyond party politics. How new subjectivities change the idea of social transformation

“…However, while the research on social movements and party systems has emphasized possible cross-fertilization and growing relations between different social movement organizations and political parties, several political party scholars have argued that this different-but-close relationship between political parties and social movements no longer exists. In a growing strand of party research, it has been diagnosed that political parties, especially those that originated in close ties with a social milieu, have lost big parts of their societal roots, and have suffered from increased voter volatility and loosening collective identities (Dassonneville, Hooghe, and Vanhoutte 2014;van Biezen and Poguntke 2014). The research on political participation has supported these observations and has diagnosed a shift of political activism from the sphere of political parties towards civil society (Dalton 2019).…”