The loyalties voters feel towards political parties are central to the stability of democratic systems. Political socialisation theories explain these loyalties through parental inheritance. This paper analyses the consequences for party loyalties when parental in heritance is absent, through an examination of partisanship among Australian immigrants. Three hypotheses to explain immigrant par tisanship — withdrawal, economic self-interest, and re-socialisation are tested using a large national survey conducted among immi grants in 1988. The results support the withdrawal and economic self-interest hypotheses, but reject the re-socialisation hypothesis. The relative periods of time spent in the donor and host societies do not appear to have any influence on partisanship. Lacking the affect ive bond to parties provided by parental political socialisation, immigrants appear able to change their party loyalties relatively easily, as studies of ethnic voting in Australia have shown.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abramson, Paul (1979), 'Developing Party Identification: A Further Examination of Lifecycle, Generational, and Period Effects', American Journal of Political Science23, 78-96.
2.
Abramson, Paul (1983), Political Attitudes in America, San Fransisco, Freeman.
3.
Aitkin, Don (1982), Stability and Change in Australian Politics, Canberra, ANU Press.
4.
Almond, Gabriel A. and Sidney Verba, (1963), The Civic Culture, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
5.
Andersen, Kristi (1979), The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-36 , Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
6.
Budge, Ian, Ivor Crewe and Dennis Farlie, (eds) (1976), Party Identification and Beyond, London, Wiley.
7.
Butler, David and Donald Stokes, (1974), Political Change in Britain, London, Macmillan.
8.
Campbell, Angus et al., (1954), The Voter Decides, Evanston, Ill., Row, Peterson.
9.
Campbell, Angus et al., (1960), The American Voter, New York, Wiley.
10.
Clarke, Harold D. et al., (1978), Political Choice in Canada, Toronto, McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
11.
Connell, R.W. (1971), The Child's Construction of Politics, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press.
12.
Converse, Philip and Georges Dupeux, (1962), 'The Politicisation of the Electorate in France and the United States', Public Opinion Quarterly26, 1-23.
13.
Dalton, Russell J. (1988), Citizen Politics in Western Democracies, Chatham, NJ, Chatham.
14.
Davies, Alan (1966), 'Migrants and Politics' in Alan Stoller (ed.), New Faces, Melbourne , Cheshire.
15.
Foster, Lois and David Stockley, (1988), 'The Rise and Decline of Australian Multiculturalism, 1973-88', Politics, 23, 1-10.
16.
Graetz, Brian and Ian McAllister, (1988), Dimensions of Australian Society, Melbourne, Macmillan.
17.
Greenstein, Fred I. (1965), Children and Politics, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press.
18.
Hertel, Bradley R. (1976), 'Minimising Error Variance Introduced by Missing Data Routines in Survey Analysis', Sociological Methods and Research, 4, 169-84.
19.
Jennings, M. Kent and Richard G. Niemi , (1974), The Political Character of Adolescence, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
20.
Jennings, M. Kent and Richard G. Niemi , (1981), Generations and Politics , Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
21.
Jones, Frank L. and Ian McAllister, (1990), 'The Changing Structural Base of Australian Politics since 1946', Politics, 24, 7-17.
22.
Jupp, James (ed.) (1983), The Politics of Ethnicity, Sydney, Allen and Unwin.
23.
Kelley, Jonathan and Ian McAllister, (1982), 'The Decision to Become an Australian Citizen ', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 18, 428-40.
24.
Kelley, Jonathan and Ian McAllister, (1984), 'Immigrants, Socioeconomic Attainments, and Politics in Australia', British Journal of Sociology, 35, 387-405.
25.
Kemp, David (1978), Society and Electoral Behaviour in Australia, Brisbane, University of Queensland Press .
26.
LeDuc, Lawrence (1981), 'The Dynamic Properties of Party Identification: A Four Nation Comparison', European Journal of Political Research , 9, 257-68.
27.
McAllister, Ian (1984), 'Housing Tenure and Party Choice in Australia, Britain and the United States', British Journal of Political Science, 14, 387-400.
28.
McAllister, Ian (1988), 'Ethnic Issues and Voting in the 1987 Australian Federal Election', Politics, 23, 11-15.
29.
McAllister, Ian and Alvaro Ascui, (1988), 'Voting Patterns', in Ian McAllister and John Warhurst (eds), Australia Votes, Melbourne, Longman.
30.
McAllister, Ian and Jonathan Kelley , (1982), 'Class, Ethnicity and Voting Behaviour in Australia', Politics, 17, 96-107.
31.
McAllister, Ian and Jonathan Kelley , (1983), 'Changes in the Ethnic Vote in Australia, 1967-79', Politics, 18, 98-107.
32.
McAllister, Ian and Anthony Mughan, (1987), 'Party Commitment, Vote Switching, and Liberal Decline in Australia', Politics, 22, 75-83.
33.
Mistilis, Nina (1980), 'The Political Participation of Immigrant Electors ', Politics, 15, 69-71.
34.
Mistilis, Nina (1985), 'Immigrant Political Partisanship: Towards a Frame of Reference' in M. Poole et al., (eds), Australia in Transition, Sydney, Harcourt, Brace, Janovich.
35.
Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba and John R. Petrocik , (1976), The Changing American Voter , Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
36.
Rose, Richard and Ian McAllister, (1986), Voters Begin to Choose, London , Sage.
37.
Rose, Richard and Ian McAllister, (1990), The Loyalties of Voters: A Lifetime Learning Model , London, Sage.
38.
Schattschneider, E.E. (1942), Party Government, New York , Holt, Reinhart and Winston.
39.
Shively, W. Phillips (1972), 'Party Identification, Party Choice, and Voting Stability: The Weimar Case', American Political Science Review , 66, 1203-25.
40.
Social Science Data Archives (1989), Issues in Multicultural Australia Survey 1988: User's Guide for the Machine-Readable Data File, Canberra, Social Science Data Archives, Australian National University, 1989.
41.
Wearing, Rosemary (1985), 'Correlates of Choosing Australian Citizenship ', Australia and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 21, 395-413.
