4th Research Forum session of the academic year 2024-2025

Date: Thursday, February 6th, 2025

Time:  12pm 1:30pm

Room:  40.035, Sala de Graus Calsamiglia, Campus Ciutadella

Speaker: Herman van de Werfhorst, European University Institute

Chair: Luis Ortiz, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Presentation - Wider Gaps or Deeper Trenches? Cleavages in Political Values in a Global Perspective 1985-2019

Abstract

This paper studies political cleavages by education over time, focusing on both gaps in group averages in political attitudes and within-group homogeneity in them. The existing literature studies primarily (trends in) average gaps in political attitudes across groups, leaving within-group homogeneity or heterogeneity out of sight. We contend that within-group homogeneity is an essential element of political polarization, as larger homogeneity within education groups deepens the trenches between them, even if the gaps remain the same. Using ISSP survey data from 1985-2019, we employ variance function regression models to assess change in the gaps between social strata in values, and in the homogeneity within education groups. We examine classical left-right issues on economic distribution and government interference, and GAL-TAN issues related to climate change, gender, and immigration. Results suggest that within education-group variances are in decline for classical left-right issues regarding economic distributions, and on the rise with regard to GAL-TAN issues. Given that larger variances make it hard to act politically, the results point to difficulties of establishing representative politics on the issue of these modern themes.

About the Speaker

Herman van de Werfhorst is professor of Sociology in the SPS department at the European University Institute, Florence. He is on leave from the University of Amsterdam. His work focuses on inequalities in and through education, in labour markets and political and civic engagement. He combines comparative cross-sectional research with longitudinal research on register and panel data. His work has appeared in journals in sociology, educational science, and political science, and at Oxford University Press and Amsterdam University Press.