New Young Liberals: The (Re)Emergence of a Political Force in European Politics

• In Event: It's My Party and I'll Realign If I Want To

Abstract

Liberal parties are on the rise in many countries, and many younger and highly educated
voters seem to hold liberal social values as well as free market economic values. How
large is this “Right-Liberal” bloc, and does its rise explain the re-emergence of Liberal parties? To answer these questions, this paper tracks the size and voting behaviour of four ideological types of voters in Europe: Left-Liberals, Right-Liberals, Left-Traditionalists, and Right-Traditionalists. The analysis combines a cross-country study of ideology and voting in 22 European countries over the past 20 years with a within-individual analysis of ideology and voting behaviour in a single country (the United Kingdom). On average in European democracies, Right-Liberals (free market plus social liberal values) tend to be university educated, younger, urban and employed in the private sector. Also, these voters are increasingly relevant, as they have grown in size and increasingly vote for Liberal parties rather than Social Democrat or centre right (Conservative and Christian Democratic) parties. If these trends continue, could we see a return to classic economic left-right conflicts as younger and university educated (left- and right-) liberals replace older traditionalists?

Author

• Simon Hix, European University Institute