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| Topic | So what's with the increase in worldwide right wing activity? |
| ssjevot 08/10/25 9:25:20 PM #201: | legendary_zell posted... When actual working-class centered policies are considered unthinkable and are not seriously on the table and the contest is increasingly on social issues where the working class is not aligned, and where progressive social views are mainly spread through the college experience, of course working class people who often have more conservative social views will at least vote to get that or to try to be the economic boot rather than the economic heel when getting rid of the boot seems impossible. Maybe you should actually read the article then. In their influential book Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism, political scientists Adam Przeworski and John Sprague (1986) examine the challenges faced by socialist parties in gaining power. They argue that the framing political conflict as primarily a struggle between rich and poor is only one among many possibilities: At any particular moment multiple political forces compete to impose a specific causal structure on the political behavior of individuals. Class ideology is one of the potential competitors, along with the universalistic ideology of individuals-citizens, and various particularistic claims made on behalf of confessional persuasions, ethnic ties, linguistic affinities, regional, racist, or nationalistic values. Some of the most profound confrontations in European history did not involve class at all but rather juxtaposed confessional loyalties to universalistic conceptions of citizenship. Przeworski and Sprague (1986)The historical leftright divide in the West, centred on distributive issues, likely took shape due to the coincidence of industrialisation and democratisation: a large, cohesive, and organised working class backing a clear ideological project, on paper, and seemingly realised in communist countries. For a time, this allowed the working class to anchor coalitions supporting left-wing parties and helped structure political competition around economic lines. But the economic and demographic shifts since the postwar era have gradually eroded the foundations of this divide. It may be a mistake, then, to expect the leftright split to necessarily return to its specific twentieth-century form. Low-income voters who once formed the core of left-wing coalitions have gradually shifted to supporting more and more right-wing, often populist, parties. This change reflects a broader transformation in political alignments. As left-wing parties have attracted highly educated, urban voters, the traditional working-class base has lost both influence and recognition. They grew concerned about developments like globalisation and immigration, broadly supported by left-wing parties, while their social status declined within the lefts evolving value system. In this context, right-wing parties have found opportunities to offer narratives that restore symbolic recognition and respond to the economic and cultural discontent of these voters.This post aims primarily to understand the political realignment of low-income voters, not to make a moral or partisan judgment about it. Nonetheless, the implications for society are significant enough to warrant a comment in conclusion. As discussed by Norris and Inglehart, Sandel, Piketty, and many others, this shift has often led low-income voters to support anti-establishment populist parties, many of which show a questionable commitment to democratic institutions. It is fair to say that Western democracies are facing a crisis marked by uncertainty about their resilience to external authoritarian pressures and internal populist tensions.11 Given the current pressures on democratic institutions, re-engaging low-income voters in the mainstream political process would appear to be a desirable goal for parties, left and right, committed to democratic norms. --- Favorite Games: BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Bayonetta, Bloodborne thats a username you habe - chuckyhacksss ... Copied to Clipboard! |
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