The nature and structure of European belief systems: exploring the varieties of belief systems across 23 European countries

Abstract

We investigate the structure of political belief systems across Europe to investigate what belief systems in European societies, and those who hold them, have in common. In doing so, we answer three questions: First, are political belief system structures similar across Europe? Second, which demographic groups are likely to have similar belief systems within countries? Third, how are belief systems related to voting behaviour? Results from Correlational Class Analyses on data from 23 European countries indicate that a wide variety of belief systems exist in Europe (2–5 per country), but that these can be summarized into two diverse groups, although belief systems in one group were more similar than in the other. Unexpectedly, the groups did not differ in the strength of association between beliefs. While cultural and economic belief dimensions were not consistently found, and tended to be weak, they were positively associated in the first group and negatively associated in the second. Belief systems of the first group were more likely to be from Western European countries and its members more likely to be higher educated compared to the second group. Membership in the second group was associated with more populist far-right voting and vote abstention.