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In assessing the influence of class on politics in the post-WWII period, empirical data are presented on voting patterns across 20 Western democratic industrialized countries, 1945-1990. Both the traditional manual/nonmanual class scheme & a more detailed, 7-category measure -- the EGP class scheme -- are employed in the analysis, as well as measures of both absolute & relative class voting. Results indicate substantial between-country differences in overall levels of relative class voting & significant within-country declines in class voting levels across this period. Directions for future research on political explanations for these findings are outlined. 3 Tables, 40 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

In assessing the influence of class on politics in the post-WWII period, empirical data are presented on voting patterns across 20 Western democratic industrialized countries, 1945-1990. Both the traditional manual/nonmanual class scheme & a more detailed, 7-category measure -- the EGP class scheme -- are employed in the analysis, as well as measures of both absolute & relative class voting. Results indicate substantial between-country differences in overall levels of relative class voting & significant within-country declines in class voting levels across this period. Directions for future research on political explanations for these findings are outlined. 3 Tables, 40 References. K. Hyatt Stewart

Studies on the relation between class and voting behaviour traditionally use measures of absolute class voting (Alford indices), and apply simple class schemes (a manual/non-manual class dichotomy). Almost all these studies showed that levels of class voting differed between countries and that declines in levels of class voting occurred in most countries in the postwar period. However, recently, scholars have argued that using measures of relative class voting (e.g. log-odds-ratios) and more detailed class schemes (e.g. the EGP class scheme) might yield different conclusions. In this article the tenability of this claim is tested analysing comparable data from twenty Western industrial democracies in the period 1945-90. The main finding is that the different measurement procedures do not lead to essentially different conclusions. Using various procedures, a similar ranking of the countries with respect to their levels of class voting was obtained: the Scandinavian countries and Britain having the highest levels of class voting, and the United States and Canada the lowest. Furthermore, on using the various procedures, declines in levels of relative class voting were indicated in the same countries (particularly the Scandinavian countries, Germany and Britain), while no evidence of substantial declines was found in others (Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and The Netherlands).

The author tests several hypotheses about the contextual effects of class mobility on the voting behaviour of intergenerationally stable class members. These hypotheses pertain to the effects of levels of outflow from and inflow mobility to a specific social class (in a certain nation and a specific year). The hypotheses are tested by multi-level modelling, and analyzing data on 20.619 respondents from 113 surveys held in sixteen industrialized democratic countries in the period 1956–1990. Despite these efforts, the analyses show no significant contextual effect of either the level of intergenerational inflow or the level of outflow social mobility in a country on the voting behaviour of intergenerationally immobile persons. In the discussion section possible explanations for these negative results are discussed. Multilevel Analyse Voting Behaviour. Social Mobility. Context Effects.

Die Befunde neuerer Arbeiten widersprechen einem sich zunehmend abzeichnenden Konsens über die schwindende Bedeutung sozialer Spaltungen für das Wahlverhalten. Kritisiert wird inzwischen, dass die These auf einer unzureichenden empirischen Grundlage basiert und daher nicht belegt ist. Der vorliegende Beitrag greift in die Debatte ein, indem ein umfassendes historisch-vergleichendes Porträt von drei wichtigen sozialstrukturellen Komponenten des Wahlverhaltens in sechs fortgeschrittenen kapitalistischen Demokratien entworfen wird. Die Interpretation der Daten des Ländervergleichs zwischen 1964 bis 1998 zeigt, dass die Stärke der Beziehungen zwischen Spaltungen und dem Wahlverhalten stark differiert. Die kompatiblen Daten aus Australien, Deutschland, Großbritannien, den Niederlanden, Österreich und den USA zu den Klassen-, Religions- und Geschlechterspaltungen schränken insgesamt die Geltung der These stark ein, dass das spaltungsbestimmte Wahlverhalten zurückgegangen sei. (ICA)

Since 1989 the political systems in Eastern European societies have changed radically, from totalitarian regimes towards democratic regimes with free general elections and multi-party systems similar to early democracies. This paper examines whether in these new democracies the same class cleavages have become important as in longstanding Western democracies. The relation between social class, attitudes towards economic justice and voting behavior is investigated in five new democracies and compared with those in nine longstanding democracies. The data used are from various cross-nationally comparable and nationally representative surveys held in the 1990s (total N = 20,270). Results show that social class has clear effects on economic justice attitudes and voting behavior in Western democracies. In the post-communist societies, members of different social classes consistently differ in their attitudes towards income inequality and social security, but hardly differ in their voting behavior. Owing to the politically unstable situation in the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe, people in different classes are probably unable to translate their policy preferences into party preferences.

Analyzing data obtained from the literature and our own calculations, significant differences were found among countries in their levels of class voting. The Scandinavian countries had the highest and Canada and the USA the lowest levels of class voting. Since the 1950s, there was a decline in almost all countries in the level of class voting. In this article, several hypotheses were deduced from a limited number of individual assumptions, each purporting to explain the differences among and declining trends within countries. Testing these hypotheses with multilevel techniques revealed that differences among countries can best be explained by their population's religious-ethnic-linguistic diversity, and by the union density within countries. The decline in most countries can best be explained by the rise in their standard of living. Furthermore, a rise in the percentage of union members, especially among the nonmanual classes, accelerated the decline in the level of class voting in some countries. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

Abstract. Analyzing data obtained from the literature and our own calculations, significant differences were found among countries in their levels of class voting. The Scandinavian countries had the highest and Canada and the USA the lowest levels of class voting. Since the 1950s, there was a decline in almost all countries in the level of class voting. In this article, several hypotheses were deduced from a limited number of individual assumptions, each purporting to explain the differences among and declining trends within countries. Testing these hypotheses with multilevel techniques revealed that differences among countries can best be explained by their population's religious–ethnic–linguistic diversity, and by the union density within countries. The decline in most countries can best be explained by the rise in their standard of living. Furthermore, a rise in the percentage of union members, especially among the nonmanual classes, accelerated the decline in the level of class voting in some countries.

Considers changes in the effects of parental background on educational attainment in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, & Slovakia, 1940-1979, drawing on 1993 cross-national survey data from 13,997 male respondents. Findings show slight but consistent decreases in the effects of parents' education, status, & political party membership on final educational attainment. However, it demonstrates stability or increases in the effects of parental background on the continuation probabilities at schooling transitions. Applying a method developed by Robert D. Mare (1981 [see abstract 81L8738]), analysis reveals that the slight decreases in the effects of parental background on final educational attainment result from two offsetting influences: stability or slight increases in the effects of parental background on school continuation probabilities in schooling transitions resulted in the stability of increase in these effects; whereas the substantial educational expansion that occurred in these nations resulted in their decrease.

This study, which is based on individual criminal careers over a 60‐year period, focuses on the development of criminal behavior. It first examines the impact that life circumstances such as work and marriage have on offending, then tests whether the effects of these circumstances are different for different groups of offenders, and finally examines the extent to which the age‐crime relationship at the aggregate level can be explained by age‐graded differences in life circumstances. Official data were retrieved for a 4‐percent (N=4,615) sample of all individuals whose criminal case was tried in the Netherlands in 1977. Self‐report data were derived from a nationally representative survey administered in the Netherlands in 1996 to 2,244 individuals aged 15 years or older. In analyzing this data, we use semi‐parametric group‐based models. Results indicate that life circumstances substantially influence the chances of criminal behavior, and that the effects of these circumstances on offending differ across offender groups. Age‐graded changes in life circumstances, however, explain the aggregate age‐crime relationship only to a modest extent.

This paper presents an analysis of patterns of access to education in six Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Slovakia) between 1940 and 1985. As in other industrial countries, average educational attainment (measured by duration, i.e. years in school) has increased greatly since 1940. But the expansion was most rapid until 1970. In all six countries, women increased their educational attainment more than men. By 1975, the difference between men and women in regard to years of schooling had virtually disappeared in all countries studied. Parents' educational attainment (measured as average years of schooling of father and mother) proves to be a main determinant of their children's attainment. However, the effect of parents' education decreased by about half from 1940 to 1985. Cultural resources (measured by parents' cultural behavior while the respondent was growing up) turns out to be a strong predictor of educational attainment, and equally so for men and women. It accounts for about one-third of the educational reproduction effect. However, the effect of cultural background declined considerably under communism. Finally, parents' political resources (measured as parents membership of the Communist Party) is shown to have a weak but consistent effect on educational attainment in the six countries. Although this effect was relatively strong in the early communist period, it was negligible for the younger cohorts.