Clase y voto

Intereses, identidades y preferencias

Abstract

First, the ambiguous and contradictory use of the concept of social cleavage for analysing the
relationship between class and vote is discussed, and then the study of this relationship within a
framework in which economic interests, as defined by the social structure, are only a point of
departure, is proposed. In this schema, the social and political identities of voters play a decisive
role in determining voters’ preferences, which suggests that economic explanations of the vote
underestimate the really political factors.