ABSTRACT
Economic and cultural values are two major components of Europeans’ belief systems. Yet little is known about how citizens organise their economic and cultural values according to the liberal-conservative dimension, a line of conflict upon which mainstream political parties are increasingly challenged by populist parties. While European politics is undergoing drastic change, how does the ideological dispersion of parties along the left-right scale influence the way citizens combine their economic and cultural values? We demonstrate that party polarisation induces a pressure toward attitude consistency within the electorate (i.e. liberal economic attitudes more highly correlated with liberal cultural attitudes and vice versa). Second, we highlight that this pressure is stronger among the most sophisticated citizens, who are more likely to pay attention and respond to elite cues. The chapter therefore contributes to put into dialogue the literature on party systems and on value systems in Europe.
