Group Identity and Social Policy Priorities in the Post-Industrial Cleavage

In recent decades, political scientists have identified a realignment in advanced democracies along a new social cleavage, often defined by conflicting cultural values. This paper explores whether and how this cleavage is expressed in economic-distributive issues. Taking into account the role group identities play in cleavage theory, I examine them as intermediaries between social structure and politics. Given the growing multidimensionality of welfare state politics, I explore attitudes toward multiple dimensions of social policy and the welfare state. Using survey data from four European countries, this study first examines the role of specific social identities such as "the culturally interested" in shaping specific economic attitudes, and how these can help explain attitudes of occupational classes that would otherwise be puzzling. Then, it employs latent class analysis to uncover two distinct patterns of social group identification with a large set of social groups. A “Particularist” cluster consists of individuals positioned as the losers of globalization, often supporting far-right parties and traditional cultural values. A “Universalist” cluster, made up of globalization's winners, tends to support the new left and liberal cultural values. My analysis reveals that universalists favor taxation, social spending, and universal welfare policies, with a particular focus on social investment. In contrast, particularists favor welfare chauvinism, a means-tested welfare state, and prioritize pensions, while demanding more equal incomes. These findings suggest that framing the new cleavage as one between universalists and particularists seems to fit, and helps explain the conflicting visions of the welfare state across the cleavage.