The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
The Breakdown of Class Politics: A Debate on Post-Industrial Stratification
Terry Nichols Clark and Seymour Martin Lipset
Class and its linkage to politics became a controversial and exciting topic again in the 1990s. Terry Clark and Seymour Martin Lipset published "Are Social Classes Dying?" in 1991, which sparked a lively debate and much new research. The main critics of Clark and Lipset--at Oxford and Berkeley -- held (initially) that class was more persistent than Clark and Lipset suggested. The positions were sharply opposed and involved several conceptual and methodological concerns. But the issues grew more nuanced as further reflections and evidence accumulated.
This book draws on four main conferences organized by the editors. Sharply contrasting views are forcefully argued with rich and subtle evidence. The volume includes a broad overview and synthesis; major reports by leading participants; and original theoretical and empirical contributions.
What People are Saying
"There can be no question that the theme is enormously important. Having first-rate empirical material dedicated to a debate about the relevance of social class to politics of the century soon upon us will stimulate wide debate and will frame many graduate and undergraduate courses around the country, if not the globe. And these are the ideal contributors to take on this task." -- Alan Wolfe, Boston College
Chapter List
List of Figure and Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1: What have we learned in a Decade on Class and Party Politics?
Chapter 2: Are Social Classes Dying?
Chapter 3: The Persistence of Classes in Post-Industrial Societies
Chapter 4: The Declining Political Significance of Social Class
Chapter 5: Class and Politics in Advanced Industrial Societies
Chapter 6: The Democratic Class Struggle in Postwar Societies: Traditional Class Voting in Twenty Countries
Chapter 7: Class Paradigm and Politics
Chapter 8: Class, Culture, and Conservatism: Reassessing Education as a Variable in Political Sociology
Chapter 9: Social Class and Voting: The Case Against Decline
Chapter 10: Upper-Middle-Class Politics and Policy Outcomes: Does Class Identity Matter?
Chapter 11: The Decline of Class Ideologies: The End of Political Exceptionalism?
Chapter 12: The Debate Over "Are Social Classes Dying?"
Contributors
Index