New Political Cleavages in European Societies

The evolution of human societies has been accompanied by shaping political cleavages. The emergence of the nation state system and its development deepened and institutionalized political cleavages in their various aspects. These cleavages, if continue, can foster political rivalries and division and would have a great impact on the political destiny of states. In fact, political behavior and electoral competition result from active cleavages in different times in various political systems. Therefore, political cleavages are among important topics of politics and are considered as major problems for states. The processes of modernization and democratization are coupled with the emergence of new cleavages that the recognition of them is necessary for maintaining political stability and equilibrium and developing the civil society. Previously, in an article titled "European System and Active Political Cleavages", class, religious and climatic (territorial) cleavages discussed. This article tries to study new political cleavages in Europe. In fact, the main question is that how much tradition political cleavages still influence political behavior? Given the dynamism of human societies and the domination of pluralist models in European democratic regimes, we always witness the emergence and growth of new conflicts and cleavages apt for being politicized and influencing political structures. Therefore, this article studies new cleavage appeared in the post – Cold War era in European societies with their great potentials as active political cleavages.