Trade and the transnational cleavage in European party politics
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3097695Utgivelsesdato
2023Metadata
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Sammendrag
Theorists of the transnational cleavage, defined as a political reaction against
European integration and immigration, also regularly conceptualise
international trade preferences as a component of this contemporary societal
divide. Yet empirical analyses of this cleavage focus on the former two topics,
while trade and the transnational cleavage has not been systematically
investigated. Making use of a new item in the 2019 Chapel Hill Expert Survey
that measures party support for protection of domestic producer groups
versus support for trade liberalisation, we examine the applicability of
explanations for European integration positioning for the topic of trade. The
results show that party positions on international trade correlate with parties’
underlying two-dimensional ideology: parties of the economic left and
culturally conservative parties support trade protection. The findings advance
previous studies on the transnational cleavage and party positioning on
trade, and demonstrate the continued importance of economic factors in
driving patterns of trade protection.