Political Cleavages, Class Structures, and the Politics of Old and New Minorities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, 1963–2019

Abstract

This paper studies the long-run transformation of the structure of political cleavages in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Regional, linguistic, and religious identities inherited from nation-building processes have differentially shaped the representation of social inequalities in the former dominions. I discuss how the politics of “old minorities” – Catholics of Irish descent in Australia, French speakers of Quebec in Canada, and the Māori in New Zealand – have interacted with the politics of class and the formation of electoral divides. In all three countries, higher-educated voters have become increasingly supportive of labor, social democratic, liberal, and green parties, while high-income voters have remained more likely to vote for conservative forces, leading to the emergence of “multi-elite party systems” comparable to that found in other Western democracies. Nonetheless, nativist cleavages remain more limited in these democracies than in Western Europe, as illustrated by the only moderate support of immigrants and new minorities for left-wing and liberal parties.