The Class Cleavage

The Political Mobilization of the European Left, 1860-1980

In an in-depth comparative analysis, Stefano Bartolini studies the history of socialism and working-class politics in Western Europe. While examining the social contexts, organizational structures, and political developments of thirteen socialist experiences from the 1860s to the 1980s, he reconstructs the steps through which social conflict was translated and structured into an opposition, as well as how it developed its different organizational and ideological forms, and how it managed more or less successfully to mobilize its reference groups politically.

Contents

List of figures and tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The class cleavage: conceptual and methodological framework; 2. The European Left: size, ideological orientation and organizational cohesion; 3. Industrialization, urbanization and Labor’s response; 4. Cultural heterogeneity; 5. Enfranchisement; 6. Organizational structuring and membership mobilization; 7. Political integration; 8. Cleavage structures; 9. The communist split: united and divided Lefts; 10. The macroconstellation of class cleavage structuring; Data appendix; References; Index.

Reviews

"Bartolini's work is a major landmark in comparative labor studies which will stand as a tribute to its author for a very long time. It is a must for anyone interested in comparative labor history." Journal of Modern History

"Stefano Bartolini has produced a masterful and monumental study whose extremely ambitious title accurately describes the book's contents... this truly is a ground-breaking work whose strength lies in the systematic examination of historical material." Canadian Journal of History

"To my knowledge, this is the most systematic and comprehensive study of the political fortunes of the 'class left' in Western Europe ever attempted since the second half of the nineteenth century. It displays a masterful combination of theory building and empirical analysis, grounded in the author's tremendous historical knowledge of working class movements." Herbert Kitschelt, Duke University

"The Class Cleavage is an example of what comparative politics can be in the hands of a true master. This is a daring and seminal work." Hans Daalder, Leiden University

"Armed with charts and masses of data, Bartolini has produced a colossal study of the relations among European labor parties and unions, governments, and bourgeois interests; the role of peasants and religious groups; and the complex split between socialists and communists. Bartolini's erudition, mastery of details, awareness of national differences, and virtuosity in explaining problematic cases are astounding." Foreign Affairs

• ISBN: 0-521-03343-8
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Author: Stefano Bartolini
• Language: English
• Type: Hardback, 225mm x 150mm

Price: 47.12 €

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