The authors are looking at the difference between Party Id/partisanship and ideology (left/right) with regards to which is transmitted from parent to child; yet contrary to other scholars, the authors conceptualize the two variables in a single model.
Partisanship plays a special part in value transmission across generations. This is based on three tenets:
(1) Party ID is shaped earlier than other political attitudes (due to strong influence by mom and dad)
(2) Party ID is stable over time
(3) Party ID strongly affects other political attitudes
Yet a number of comparative findings reject partisanship transmission from parent to child (Thomassen, Dutch; Clark et al, Canada; Eijk and Niemoller, Netherlands; Converse and Dupeux, France)
In addition, a number of American political science studies also reject the transmission (Fiorina et a.l).
To better understand the transmission of partisanship (and ideology) from parent to child, Westholm and Niemi divide countries up based on stability of the democratic system to test whether this affects the transmission, and strength of transmission, from parent to child.
Authors' hypotheses:
H1 there is a more direct transfer of partisanship than of ideological orientation (direct meaning parent partisanship to chid partisanship, parent ideology to child ideology)
H2 cue taking is stronger from partisanship than ideological orientation
H3 indirect mechanisms will be more important to parent offspring similarity of ideological orientations than to similarity of partisanship (indirect meaning partisanship leads to ideology etc, ideology leads to partisanship, or effects are mediated by one or more intervening variable etc.)
H4 the direct transfer of partisanship will increase with the stability of the party system
H5 the strength of the indirect transfer routes relatively and absolutely, will increase with the strength of the associaion between ideological orientation and partisanship
H6 The direct transfer of left/right ideological orientations will be stronger in natons with multiparty systems
H7 the relationship between left/right orientation and partisanship will be stronger in nations with multiparty systems
H8 The indirect transfer of left/right ideological orientations will be stronger in nations with stable multiparty systems
H9 due to the strength of direct as well as indirect transfer, left/right ideological orientation will be most effectively transmitted in nations having a stable, multiparty system
Categorizing based on--
Degree of system stability:
(1) stable (US, GB, FInland, Sweden)
(2) relevatively stable (since WWII) (Austria, West Germany)
(3) turnmoil since WWII (Netherlands, France)
FIndings:
The strength of partisanship trends follows this classification quite well , supporting hypothesis 4 (the direct transfer of partisanship will increase with the stability of the party system).
hyothesis 1 is supported; partisanship transfer is higher than ideological.
hypothesis 5 is supported; the strength of the indirect route increased with the strength f the association between ideology and partisanship.
hypthosis 7 is supported; the relationship between ideology ad partisanship (within generations) is stronger in multiparty nations.
hypothesis 6 is also supported; ideological transmission is stronger in multiparty systems
hyothesis 8 is supported; indirect transmission of ideology is stronger in stable multiparty systems
hypothesis 9 is also supported give the results of 8.
Conclusion:
institutional conditions and historical events mediate direct and indirect transfers of partisanship and ideology from parents to child.
the strength of these inter- and intragenerational links appears in turn to be related to the stability and multiplicity, respectively, of the party system, also.
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