The Other Dimension: Unpacking the Contents and Connections of the Socio-Cultural Dimension of Party Competition in Europe

In Europe, two relatively distinct dimensions of party competition potentially exist: the economic left-right, and a socio-cultural dimension. There is, however, disagreement about the content, and relative distinctiveness of the latter dimension. This paper addresses the distinctiveness, cohesiveness and salience of the ‘other’ dimension across Europe. Using expert and public opinion surveys together with the Comparative Manifesto Data, we first explore the content and compactness of political issues that are argued to form the socio-cultural dimension across European party systems. We find distinct variances in the uniqueness, tightness and content of this dimension across the cases. While in some countries, like Hungary and Poland, the `other’ dimension is the dominant line of partisan conflict and voter choice; in other countries, such as France and Austria, socio-cultural issues bundle into subordinate and separate dimensions; while in yet other countries, such as the Netherlands, the content of this dimension runs counter to our theoretical expectations. Secondly, we explore this variance through various systemic and partisan characteristics, namely electoral system, democratic stability, welfare regime type, as well as the historical ideological orientations of major parties in the system. We conclude that the multifaceted nature of the ‘other’ dimension across Europe provides a generalizable summary of the continent’s party systems.