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Die konfessionell-religiöse Konfliktlinie in der deutschen Wählerschaft: Entstehung, Stabilität und Wandel [1985]
The Denominational-Religious Cleavage within the German Electorate: Origins, Stability and Change
[journal article]
Abstract The German religious cleavage developed during a political conflict concerning the rights of the Catholic Church in the early 1870s of the just-founded German Empire. The Christian Democratic Party was successful in transforming this cleavage into a denominational-religious cleavage after WWII. With... view more
The German religious cleavage developed during a political conflict concerning the rights of the Catholic Church in the early 1870s of the just-founded German Empire. The Christian Democratic Party was successful in transforming this cleavage into a denominational-religious cleavage after WWII. Within the electorate, this cleavage is manifested by the CDU/CSU party identification of both religious Catholics and Protestants, the former delineated by frequency of church attendance, and the latter by religious belief systems. Communal social relationships among these groups support the stability of this cleavage. In addition, the CDU affiliation of Protestants varies by region. It is strongest within the overwhelmingly Protestant northern regions of Germany where the CDU was founded after WWII without “help” of former members of the Catholic Zentrum party. This cleavage between the Christian Democrats on the one side and all other parties on the other side still existed in 1982 as shown with Allbus data of that year.... view less
Keywords
voting behavior; party; preference; value-orientation; Federal Republic of Germany; Protestant church; religious affiliation; religious conflict; political attitude; Catholic Church (Roman); voter; religiousness; Christian Democratic Union; social structure; identification; German Reich
Classification
Social History, Historical Social Research
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Sociology of Religion
Free Keywords
denominational-religious cleavage; social mechanisms supporting cleavage stability
Document language
German
Publication Year
2015
Page/Pages
p. 122-149
Journal
Historical Social Research, Supplement (2015) 27
Issue topic
Politisierte Sozialstruktur und Wählerverhalten bei Bundestagswahlen
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.suppl.27.2015.122-149
ISSN
0936-6784
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed