Ciudadanos y partidos en el sur de Europa

Los sentimientos antipartidistas

Abstract

While it has often been noted that antiparty attitudes appear to be widespread among the
electorates of established democracies, these attitudes have rarely been analysed empirically.
We have found in this study of four democracies in Southern Europe that antiparty orientations are
of two distinct types. One set of attitudes, which we refer to as «reactive antipartyism», change over
time in response to short-term political circumstances. The other dimension, «cultural
antipartyism», consists of attitudes that have remained remarkably stable over time and tend to be
held by persons of low educational attainment. While there are few behavioral correlates of reactive
antipartyism, cultural antipartyism is strongly linked to general marginalization from political life
and low exposure to political information, and appears to be part of a broader syndrome of political
disaffection.