Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2011, 47(1): 33-60 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.1.03

The Re-stratification of Czech Politics: Class Voting in the Czech Republic between 1992 and 2010

Michael L. Smith, Petr Matějů
1 Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Praha
2 Institut pro sociální a ekonomické analýzy a Vysoká škola CEVRO Institut, Praha

This article examines the development of class voting in the Czech Republic, 1992- 2010. While many Western countries have been experiencing declining or stable associations between class and electoral choice, we hypothesize that the trend in class voting should be quite different in the Czech Republic, and by extension, in other post-communist countries. We theorize that if a country is undergoing a process of re-stratification - the process in which class-based cleavages and identities regain significance in a new market economy after a long period of their de-stratification by communist egalitarian policies - such a country should also experience increases in class voting in the new market environment. Using standard loglinear and logistic regression approaches, our analysis confirms that class voting has indeed increased in the Czech Republic, particularly from 1998-2010. That increase is large both in the gross effect of class as well as its effect net of the role of other demographic variables. The Czech Republic is therefore relatively unique among countries examined in the international literature on class voting in having increasing associations across several electoral periods.

Keywords: class voting, class politics, social stratification, politics in the Czech Republic.

Published: February 1, 2011Show citation

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Smith, M.L., & Matějů, P. (2011). The Re-stratification of Czech Politics: Class Voting in the Czech Republic between 1992 and 2010. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 47(1), 33-60. doi: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.1.03.
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