The Spanish Voter: Tradition, Economics, Ideology

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Abstract
Not much is known about the fundamentals of electoral behavior in the new Spanish democracy. Therefore, we attempt to uncover the contours of two basic dimensions: political involvement and vote choice. Utilizing data from a special 1984 Euro-Barometer survey, we suggest that Spanish political involvement is low, both absolutely and relatively, primarily because of the recent socialization to democratic norms. With regard specifically to the national vote choice, we demonstrate that traditional social cleavage explanations perform poorly, in comparison to more current explanations stressing long-term ideological attachments or intermediate-term economic concerns. However, taken together, these three factors--cleavages, ideology, economics--manage a good accounting of national vote choice in contemporary Spain.