Clivages

Clivages, in political sociology, refer to deep and enduring social divisions that shape political conflict, party competition, and voting behavior. They are structural sources of political allegiance, arising from how resources are distributed, identities are formed, and institutions are organized. Cleavages influence not only issue positions but also the formation of political parties and long-run voting patterns, even as governments respond to changing circumstances.

The classic formulation traces the concept to Lipset and Rokkan (1967), who argued that major cleavages originate in processes of state-building, industrialization, and social cleavage across civil society. They identified four central cleavages: center-periphery (local vs national power), state-church (clerical vs secular loyalties), rural-urban (agrarian vs urban interests), and owner-worker (bourgeoisie vs proletariat). These cleavages produce durable party families and characteristic alignments that persist across elections, creating the structure of a party system.

Over time, scholars have broadened the concept to include numerous other divisions, such as language, ethnicity, region, migration, gender, and new issues like globalization, immigration, and the environment. Cleavages are not fixed; they can weaken, transform, or be replaced by new lines of conflict as economic and cultural change alters identities and incentives. Some cleavages cross-cut others, mitigating predictable voting blocs, while others become central to political competition again in new forms.

See also: party system, realignment, cleavage theory, cross-cutting cleavages.