Wählen als Gruppenerfahrung? ein Test des wahlsoziologischen Ansatzes von Paul F. Lazarsfeld

Lazarsfeld et al. have formulated a voting model, which is based on the influences of group embedding. This essentially means that people adapt their voting behaviour according to their social embeddings. However, the individualisation thesis has recently claimed that group embeddings have become looser and more often contradictory. Can the empiric findings of Lazarsfeld therefore still be valid? This analysis, which is based on a panel study on the Styrian Local Elections 2000, sets out to test the applicability of this voting model. It can be shown clearly, that people are still more likely to vote for the parties, which are popular within their social surroundings. However, when put under cross pressures, people tend to change their party preferences, whereas relevant cross pressures are not only resulting from social embeddings, but also from the evaluation of politicians, issues and so on.