The Democratic Class Struggle in the United States, 1948-1992

Abstract

We present evidence of a historic realignment in the relationship between class and voting behavior in U.S. presidential elections in the postwar period. We take advantage of recent advances in class analysis and statistical methodology to introduce a distinction between traditional class voting and class voting. Neither shows a decline in the postwar era. The realignment occurred since 1968, as professionals and nonmanagerial whitecollar workers movedfrom voting for Republicans to supporting Democratic presidential candidates. Stronger'support for Republicans among the selfemployed and among managers has more than offset the shift of professionals and nonmanagerial white-collar workers to the Democrats. Skilled bluecollar workers have become volatile, moving away from their historic support for the Democratic Party withoutfirmly attaching themselves to the Republican Party. Significant class differences in voter turnout also contribute to the total association between class and voting outcomes. Scholars and political activists have long debated the role of class divisions in U.S. politics. At mid-century, research on the democratic class struggle (Anderson and Davidson 1943) was a central concern of the sociology of politics. The seminal studies of political behavior in the 1950s featured detailed analyses of the organizational and sub* Direct correspondence to Michael Hout, Sur