La integración de la teoría y los métodos: un nuevo enfoque para la investigación comparativa de las divisiones sociales

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method for comparative research on social cleavages that integrates the major approaches to voting behaviour –the sociological approach, rational choce, and party identification– under a single methodological and theoretical framework. The approach is unique in that it models the social bases of vote and attitudes separately and explicitly compares these separate models across regions. We apply this method to the major regions of Britain and Canada, and find striking cross-national and cross-regional similarities in the effects of social identities on attitudes, but considerable diversity in the effects of social identities on vote. These results suggest the importance of regional political contexts in determining the effects of social groups on voting. We conclude by arguing that the method developed in this paper can have wide applicability for comparative social research.