1. - Peter Achterberg -
-- Professor of Sociology --
--- Alumni Event Tilburg University ---
---- 03/16/2017 ----

2. First things first….
Which party did you vote for
yesterday?
https://www.menti.com/ec8bcf

3. The students’ results…
Poll by Universonline.nl
Not in any way representative…

4. The alumni-poll
https://www.mentimeter.com/s/6a488
5ac5e71866c2881e2539246abd3/168
749253c56
Not in any way representative…

5. The Netherlands:
A guide to the rest of the world?

6. The Cinderella complex

7. Populism as antagonism
An ideology that considers society to
be ultimately separated into two
homogeneous and antagonistic
groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the
corrupt elite; , and which argues that
politics should be an expression of the
volonté genérale of the people
(Mudde, 2004: 543)

8. What explains the rise of
such populism?
Giovanni Sartori – Founding father of
political sociology
Margareth Canovan – Explaining the
rise of populism
Pippa Norris – Discovering the
democratic deficit

9. The democratic deficit
(ESS, 2014, NL)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Democratische aspiraties Vertrouwen politiek Kloof

10. Two types of
consequences
Voting on the edge!
Support radical democratization!

11. Populism as nativism
An ideology which holds that states should
be inhabited by members of the native group
and that nonnative elements (persons and
ideas) are fundamentally threathening to the
homogeneous nation state (Mudde, 2007:
19)

12. What explains the rise of
such populism?
Ronald Inglehart – the rise of
postmaterialism

13. Conflict in Dutch Communist Party
On the (New) Left: On the Right (Old Left):
Ina Brouwer Marcus Bakker

14. What explains the rise of
such populism?
Ronald Inglehart – the rise of
postmaterialism
Ignazi – the silent counterrevolution

16. New-Rightist Politics Disturbs Regular
Conservative Parties, Too…
Mark Rutte (left) Rita Verdonk (right)

17. What explains the rise of
such populism?
Ronald Inglehart – the rise of
postmaterialism
Ignazi – the silent counterrevolution
Houtman, Achterberg & Derks -
Detraditionalization

18. Detraditionalization

19. Two types of
consequences
Voting behavior
And in the wake of this:
A structural realignment of politics
Etnocentrism

20. PROTECTIONISM

21. Cleavage Politics (Lipset,
Rokkan, Kriesi)
• Cleavage = more or less stable
relationship between social structure,
political values, and political parties
• ‘Class cleavage’, i.e., ‘class politics’:
• The working class traditionally supports
the leftist parties because its members
favor economic redistribution, while the
middle class votes for the rightist
parties, because it rejects these policies

22. A decline in class
politics?
• Traditionally, class has been one of
the most important predictors for
voting behavior (cf. Alford, 1967)
• This, however, has gradually but
surely changed in the postwar
period –
– Working class increasingly votes right -
Middle class increasingly votes left
(cf. Manza & Brooks, 1999;
Nieuwbeerta 1995; Clark & Lipset 1991)

23. :
Nieuwbeerta, 1995

24. Manza & Brooks, 1999

25. Economic and cultural capital: Bourdieu,
1984
Cultural
specialists
Economic
specialists
Economic capital
Cultural capital

27. A two-dimensional
ideological space?
• Based on surveys in all western
countries
• …in the postwar period
• …applicable for the general
public
• (not so much for elites…)

28. Distinguishing Class Voting
from Cultural Voting
Class _ Economic Progressiveness
+
+ Leftist Voting
_
Cultural Capital _ Authoritarianism

29. A cultural realignment?
• Findings:
– A strong economic position produces
economic conservatism-driven rightist
voting; a weak economic position produces
economic progressiveness-driven leftist
voting (=class voting)
– Cultural capital produces libertarianism-
driven leftist voting; lack of cultural capital
produces authoritarianism-driven rightist
voting (=cultural voting)

30. A cultural realignment?
• Findings:
– Voting for either old left or old right
(VVD) constitutes class voting
(economically driven: leftist-voting
working class and rightist-voting middle
class)
– Voting for either New Left or New Right
constitutes cultural voting (culturally
driven: rightist-voting working class and
leftist-voting middle class!!!)

31. A cultural realignment?
“Class Is Not Dead – It Has Been Buried Alive” (Van der Waal et
al., 2007)

32. Conclusions
• Populism as antagonism
• Result of technocratic politics
• Brings quest for democratization
• Populism as nativism
• As a reaction against new leftist
movements of the 1960s
• Brings a cultural realignment of politics
• Explains why we predicted the
demise of the dutch Labour party in
2009