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The left-right concept is considered to facilitate communication and orientation in the political world. It has a long tradition in European politics due to its capacity to absorb different associations over time. However, this dynamic nature of the concept requires periodical reassessments in order to assure that a common conceptualisation endures. This dissertation focuses on reassign what individual left-right orientation means. Usually, this is measured by asking people to place themselves on a scale labelled 'left' and 'right' at its endpoints. The first empirical analysis of this dissertation shows that this measure is comparable across groups and countries. Thereafter, the relationship between an individual's issue preference and left-right orientation is considered. The second empirical analysis shows that this relationship is conditioned by the importance people assign to the respective issues. The final analysis demonstrates that what explains left-right orientation is contingent on individual and contextual factors. This implies that in order to understand left-right orientation, it is not enough to identify what has an impact on a person's position but also account for all those factors that predict variation between individuals. Given this complexity, my conclusion is that the left-right concept runs the risk of becoming too complicated to serve as an analytical tool to shed light on political attitudes and behaviour. ; El concepte esquerra-dreta és considerat com un factor facilitador de la comunicació en el món polític. Té una llarga tradició' en la política europea degut a la seva capacitat d'absorbir diferents associacions a través del temps. Tanmateix, aquesta natura dinàmica del concepte requereix revisions periòdiques per assegurar que persisteix una conceptualització comuna. La present tesi es centra en resignar el que significa l'orientació esquerra-dreta. Normalment, es mesura tot demanant als enquestats posicionar-se a ells mateixos en una escala que va de l'esquerra a la dreta. El primer ...

"Left-Right Orientations and Voting Behavior" published on by Oxford University Press.

The article investigates the differences among West European countries in terms of the degree to which individuals' left—right self-placement is anchored in social, value and partisan factors. The study shows that clarity of party alternatives is much more important than political socialization in structuring citizens' left—right attitudes, i.e. the greater the clarity of party alternatives, the more structured the left—right orientations of citizens. As a first step in the investigation, the article seeks to show that the relative weights of social factors in explaining individual left—right self-placement, vis-à-vis values and partisan loyalties, are important, contrary to the poor results of previous studies.

An examination of the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (Left-Right placement) & newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. Analysis of Dutch national survey data covering 1976-1981 shows that voting or party preference is most clearly related to the Left-Right placement of respondents (Ns not specified). However, this placement is directly & strongly dependent on materialist/postmaterialist orientation, while background variables (eg, education, income, & age) are linked to voting via this value orientation. The materialist/postmaterialist orientation appears to be the present-day interpretation of the dominant political conflict in advanced industrial society. Although alignments & orientations count for a substantive part of the variance in voting, the power of these models to predict the actual vote of people turns out to be rather poor. 1 Table, 3 Figures, 23 References. HA

In this article we try to disentangle the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (left-right placement) and newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. It is shown that voting or party preference is most clearly related to the left-right placement of the respondents. However, this placement is directly and strongly dependent on the materialist/postmaterialist orientation, while background variables like education, income and age are linked to voting via this value orientation. The materialist/postmaterialist orientation appears to be the present-day interpretation of the dominant political conflict in advanced industrial society. Although alignments and orientations count for a substantive part of the variance in voting, the power of these models to predict the actual vote of people turns out to be rather poor.

Abstract. In this article we try to disentangle the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (left‐right placement) and newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. It is shown that voting or party preference is most clearly related to the left‐right placement of the respondents. However, this placement is directly and strongly dependent on the materialist/postmaterialist orientation, while background variables like education, income and age are linked to voting via this value orientation. The materialist/postmaterialist orientation appears to be the present‐day interpretation of the dominant political conflict in advanced industrial society. Although alignments and orientations count for a substantive part of the variance in voting, the power of these models to predict the actual vote of people turns out to be rather poor.

Tries to disentangle the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (left-right placement) and newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. (Abstract amended) .

Sweden is a country where left‐right orientation structures the political landscape, homeownership is increasingly important, and the importance of class for political preferences and behavior is changing or even weakening. This article explores the significance of homeownership for left‐right orientation in Sweden, and extends the relationship to include class position. By combining detailed cross‐sectional survey data with data on regional house price variations it suggests that homes function as an economic asset that affects individual political preferences. Furthermore, the relationship between homeownership and left‐right orientation is expected to be driven by particular class groups, whose labor market position imply a more leftist orientation, while their status as homeowners imply a more rightist one. The expectation is borne out, which indicates that the asset function of homes help accounting for changing class patterns of left‐right orientation in Sweden.

Analyzes whether left-right scales provide an interval measure of citizen issue attitudes that is comparable. Two views of left-right self-placement are juxtaposed: either that issue attitudes are the primary component of left-right self-placement; or that partnership to the primary component, which entails that left-right scales will take on different substantive meanings in countries with different types of party systems. (Abstract amended)