Social divisions in contemporary politics: A spatial approach to the analysis of socio-political attitudes and preferences in Flanders

In this study, we assess what contemporary political cleavages divide people in Flanders, Belgium. We specifically look into the existence of new cleavages separating people based on perceptions of political institutions and (direct) democracy. Information on a broad range of policy issues (economic interventionism, migration, environmental issues), democratic institutions (populism, democratic participation), and societal perceptions (social unease, conspiracy mentality) from 2232 respondents is analysed by means of Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), using survey data from 2019. We find evidence for two structuring dimensions. The first axis distinguishes people with a pessimistic and populist outlook on politics and democracy from those with more optimistic views of politics. The second axis separates people with cultural and economic conservative attitudes from those with progressive attitudes. Interestingly, classical sociological explanations (e.g., education, occupation, and age) are primarily associated with axis one, while political partisanship is linked to both axis one and two. These results provide new insight into the recent success of populism in politics, and also illustrate (potentially) important sociological changes in the social structuring of political attitudes in contemporary society.