Discover Your Understanding of Policy-Making

The Cleavage Approach and Institution-Based Models for Policy-Making

• The cleavage approach focuses on enduring socioeconomic problems that create lasting divisions between social groups, which affect policy choices.
• Social cleavages are important for policy choices as political parties offer policy proposals in accordance with the problems deemed most important.
• The Centre and Periphery cleavage consists of social groups supporting centralized political power and administrative structures, and those asserting traditional autonomy.
• The State-Church cleavage is about social groups seeking to separate secular from religious authority and those in favor of preserving the connection between them.
• The Rural-Urban cleavage yields policy implications, with the rural population favoring trade barriers and the urban population preferring trade liberalization.
• The Workers-Employer cleavage consists of employers favoring low state intervention and workers demanding job security and social protection.
• The Materialist-Post-Materialist cleavage describes the priority social groups give to new values and how political values arise from individual needs during socialization.
• The Open-Closed Society cleavage has emerged, with social groups either in favor or against the opening of markets.
• Institution-based models explain how central institutions matter for policy outputs.
• The classical approach to political institutions emphasizes the role of governmental organizations in policy-making.
• Legal rules and procedures in a political system are the independent variable, and the different functions of the state, including policy-making, represent the dependent variable.
• Arend Lijphart's Patterns of Democracy argues that political systems of advanced democracies can be assigned to two competing categories: majoritarian and consensus, which produce different policy styles.

The Cleavage Approach and Institution-Based Models for Policy-Making

• The cleavage approach focuses on enduring socioeconomic problems that create lasting divisions between social groups, which affect policy choices.
• Social cleavages are important for policy choices as political parties offer policy proposals in accordance with the problems deemed most important.
• The Centre and Periphery cleavage consists of social groups supporting centralized political power and administrative structures, and those asserting traditional autonomy.
• The State-Church cleavage is about social groups seeking to separate secular from religious authority and those in favor of preserving the connection between them.
• The Rural-Urban cleavage yields policy implications, with the rural population favoring trade barriers and the urban population preferring trade liberalization.
• The Workers-Employer cleavage consists of employers favoring low state intervention and workers demanding job security and social protection.
• The Materialist-Post-Materialist cleavage describes the priority social groups give to new values and how political values arise from individual needs during socialization.
• The Open-Closed Society cleavage has emerged, with social groups either in favor or against the opening of markets.
• Institution-based models explain how central institutions matter for policy outputs.
• The classical approach to political institutions emphasizes the role of governmental organizations in policy-making.
• Legal rules and procedures in a political system are the independent variable, and the different functions of the state, including policy-making, represent the dependent variable.
• Arend Lijphart's Patterns of Democracy argues that political systems of advanced democracies can be assigned to two competing categories: majoritarian and consensus, which produce different policy styles.

Test your knowledge on policy-making with our quiz on the cleavage approach and institution-based models. Learn about the importance of social cleavages in policy choices, including the Centre and Periphery, State-Church, Rural-Urban, Workers-Employer, Materialist-Post-Materialist, and Open-Closed Society cleavages. Explore how central institutions matter for policy outputs through the classical approach and Arend Lijphart's Patterns of Democracy. Challenge yourself and see how well