ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the extent of value cleavages in the politics of contemporary democracies. It builds an empirical research based on contemporary democracies Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP) II data. In the classic Lipset and Rokkan cleavage model, this conflict reflects socioeconomic and class interests created by the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. Evidence from Western democracies shows that class voting has declined over time, and evidence from Asia and Latin America shows that class voting is almost non-existent in those other contexts. An extensive literature has documented the mobilization of values by political elites as well as the connection between values and partisan orientations in the US, Europe and Israel. ReligLaw was asked for the first time in the 2004 US survey 'in preparation for the expansion of this cross-national research project into Muslim countries that were considering the adoption of sharia law '.
