The Ecologism/Productivism cleavage: reassessing the transformation of cleavage politics in Western Europe

Abstract West European politics has been reshaped by the formation and politicisation of a new cleavage: Ecologism versus Productivism. While existing scholarship since the 1960s mostly assumes the emergence of a single, unified cultural divide, this article goes back to the model developed by Lipset and Rokkan (1967) and distinguishes two new cleavages, Ecologism/Productivism and Identity/Cosmopolitanism, both resulting from different revolutions. Building on Bartolini and Mair’s seminal framework, this analysis also introduces a fourth dimension to the definition of cleavage: in fully mobilised electoral societies, it encompasses sociological, ideological, and organisational dimensions, as well as a policy-making component. The study then delineates and illustrates the core features of the Ecologism/Productivism divide with data on public opinion, party positions and green parties’ development. This conceptualisation offers a new lens for political scientists and policymakers, illuminating how the environmental conflict reshapes societies and party systems, interacts with other ideological and social conflicts, and influences the trajectory of West European polities in the age of Anthropocene.