Define Social Cleavages in Western Europe

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Define Social Cleavages in Western Europe
Social cleavage is the potential lines of division within the society that explains the differing fundamental conflicts in democracy system and its influence on the political party system. It is the division of voters into various voting blocs based on politics. The major social cleavages in Western Europe include center vs. Periphery, state vs. church, and vs. industry. In Western Europe countries, social cleavage shows how the elections and voting units of particular parties are influenced by social structures like territorial identity, region, language, urban-rural, race, religion, social class and party choice (Hutter, 13). Societal inputs and its interaction with various political institutions shape the political process in the European nations.
Western Europe countries differ from each other on social cleavages. In the United Kingdom, social cleavage is based on the influence of various social factors like race, religion, class, and ethnicity towards politics. The United Kingdom believes in maintaining the tradition of liberal democracy whereby the parties are also elected by religion specifically the Christian tradition of the Anglican Church (Knutsen, 13). Also, the candidate for a particular party is chosen based on gender, age, party support, religion, and education. In Germany, social cleavage is based on the freedom and integration given to people based on the c…