The Changing Bases of Political Conflict in Western Europe: The Cases of Belgium and Austria

Abstract

A change in the basis of political conflict has occurred in the West from a political arena dominated by issues of social class and religiosity to one dominated by issues of identity with either the nation-state or a subculture reflected in the declining vote share of mainstream parties of interests and the emergence of parties of identity. These new parties have been identified as “radical right” but they are distinct from parties of the classic right. We develop a causal model using World Values data (1990 and 1999 waves) from Austria, a country with a national identity party, and Belgium, a country with a party of subcultural defense, to show the attributes of supporters for the emerging parties of identity are the same at the national or subcultural levels and are distinct from those predicting support for the classic right.