This document summarizes a study that compares the effects of socioeconomic factors like education, income, and social class on voting behavior in Flanders and Wallonia, two regions of Belgium. The study uses data from the 2008 European Social Survey and multinomial logistic regression analyses to examine how these factors influence preferences for different political parties in each region, while also accounting for economic and cultural attitudes. The key findings were that education plays a more important role in party choice in Flanders, while income and social class were only relevant in Wallonia. These effects remained even after controlling for attitudes. The results highlight regional differences and the need to study all parties simultaneously in multiparty systems.

1. Original Article
Educational and class cleavages in voting
behaviour in Belgium: The effect of income,
EGP class and education on party choice in
Flanders and Wallonia
Job C. van den Berg* and Hilde Coffe´
Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht,
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The Netherlands.
E-mails: j.c.vandenberg@uu.nl; h.r.coffe@uu.nl
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract This study compares the effect of EGP class, income and level of
education on voting behaviour in Flanders and Wallonia and tests to what extent
these effects are mediated by economic and cultural attitudes. Rather than using
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a left/right dichotomy or a one-dimensional left/right continuum, as is common
in research on cleavage voting, we distinguish the main different parties in both
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regions. Using data from the 2008 European Social Survey, our Multinomial
Logistic Regression analyses indicate some regional variation. We find that
education generally plays a more important role in party choice in Flanders than
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in Wallonia, whereas income and EGP class are only relevant for party choice in
Wallonia. These effects remain even when economic and cultural attitudes are
controlled for. Furthermore, our analyses indicate that preferences for traditional
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left- or right-wing parties are influenced not only by economic concerns but
also by education and cultural attitudes. Similarly, preferences for new left- or
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right-wing parties are affected by both education and income, as well as by
attitudes towards economic and cultural issues, especially in Flanders. These
results highlight the need to include all parties simultaneously when studying
cleavage voting in multiparty systems.
Acta Politica advance online publication, 23 December 2011; doi:10.1057/ap.2011.34
Keywords: voting behavior; social cleavages; education; class; economic and
cultural attitudes; Belgium
r 2011 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0001-6810 Acta Politica 1–30
www.palgrave-journals.com/ap/

2. van den Berg and Coffe´
Introduction
For a long time, there was a broad scientific consensus on the association
between class and partisanship in Western democracies (see, for example,
Anderson and Davidson, 1943; Lipset, 1981; Korpi, 1983; Nieuwbeerta, 1995).
However, since the 1990s, intense discussions on the relevance of class
cleavages have arisen, with some announcing the death of class voting (see, for
example, Clark and Lipset, 1991) and others arguing that it is still alive (see, for
example, Evans, 2000; Brooks et al, 2006; Van der Waal et al, 2007; Houtman
and Achterberg, 2010). Whatever the case may be, scholars seem to agree that
the complexity of the current political agenda, the rise of new left- and right-
wing parties, and the salience of new politics issues, have increased the
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relevance of education for explaining party choice (Giddens, 1994; Inglehart,
1997; Harrits et al, 2010).
This study adds to the debate on educational and class cleavage voting in
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two important ways. First, rather than using simplistic dichotomous left/
right dependent variables (see, for example, Nieuwbeerta, 1995; Houtman,
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2001; Houtman and Achterberg, 2010) or a one-dimensional left/right
continuum (see, for example, Barone et al, 2007; Van der Waal et al, 2007),
which is common in cleavage research, we will distinguish among all the
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main new and traditional political parties in our models. This enables us to
study the extent to which educational and class cleavages – income and EGP
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class – affect the choice for one particular party rather than any other party.
Hence, rather than focusing only on contrasts between traditional right-
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versus traditional left-wing voting, or between new right- versus new left-
wing voting, we will thus, for example, simultaneously test the extent to
which socio-economic structural variables influence a preference for a new
left-wing party instead of a traditional left-wing party, a traditional right-
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wing party and a new right-wing party. Moreover, we will investigate the
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extent to which the effects of income, EGP class and education on party
choice are mediated by economic and cultural attitudes. Hence, our analyses
include both socio-economic structural variables (EGP class, income and
education) and variables that capture one’s values and believes (attitudes
towards economic and cultural issues).
Second, our study will take a comparative approach by comparing the
effect of socio-economic structural characteristics on voting behaviour in
Flanders and Wallonia. Whereas some cross-national studies have recently
been published (for example, Brooks et al, 2006; Dolezal, 2010; Knutsen,
2010), no study has – to the best of our knowledge – made detailed
comparison of the effects of income, EGP class and education on voting
behaviour in Flanders and Wallonia. Indeed, whereas relatively limited
research on voting behaviour in Belgium has taken a regional comparative
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3. Educational and class cleavages in voting behaviour in Belgium
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perspective (see, for example, Coffe, 2005a; De Winter et al, 2006; Hooghe
et al, 2011), this previous regional comparative research did not have a
particular focus on the effect of socio-economic structural characteristics on
party choice. Yet Belgium offers an interesting opportunity to focus on such
cleavage voting. Belgium is considered as a consociational democracy with a
prominent ethno-linguistic cleavage (Lijphart, 1969; Deschouwer, 1994;
Stroschein, 2003; Sinardet, 2010). Although it is still a unitary state, the
country has gone through an increasing separation along this cleavage during
the past decades (Deschouwer, 2006; Swenden and Jans, 2006). The two main
regions – Wallonia and Flanders – share the Belgian context, but each region
operates autonomously and has a distinct party system (Stroschein, 2003;
Deschouwer, 2006; De Winter et al, 2006; Hooghe et al, 2011). Whereas the
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social democrats (PS) are the main political player in the Walloon party
system, the Flemish system is characterized by its fragmented system and the
presence of a successful new, radical right-wing party (Vlaams Belang).
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Moreover, Flanders and Wallonia differ significantly in their levels of
economic prosperity, with Wallonia being substantially less wealthy
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compared to Flanders. We expect these economic and political regional
differences to influence the effect of socio-economic structural characteristics
on voting behaviour in the two regions. Indeed, we will argue that the effect
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of EGP class, income and the intermediary economic attitudes will be
stronger in the less affluent Walloon society, which has a strong traditional
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left-wing party, compared to the more economically affluent Flemish society,
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where the political debate is more driven by new politics issues (Coffe, 2005b;
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Billiet et al, 2006; De Winter et al, 2006). For example, De Winter et al (2006)
found that, unlike in Wallonia, ethnocentrism is an important factor when
explaining electoral behaviour in Flanders. In addition, Jacobs (2004) has
emphasized that the topic of ‘multiculturalism’ is dominating the current
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political debates in Flanders.
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In sum, our main research question is as follows: To what extent is there a
difference in the effect of socio-economic structural characteristics (EGP class,
income and education) on party choice in Flanders and Wallonia? Moreover, we
will investigate to what extent the effects are mediated by economic and cultural
attitudes in both regions. To answer these questions, we will use data from the
2008 round of the European Social Survey (ESS) and perform Multinomial
Logistic Regression analyses.
Our article is structured as follows. We begin by presenting the main theories
and research findings relative to class and educational cleavages and party
choice, and introduce our hypotheses. We then describe our data and
measurements. The analyses are presented in the following sections. We
conclude with a brief summary of the results, their implications and some
suggestions for further research.
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