Volume 8, Issue 1-2 p. 105-113

Research Note:Is the Lipset-Rokkan Hypothesis Testable?*

Johan A. Lybeck

Johan A. Lybeck

University of Gothenburg

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First published: June 1985
Citations: 8

*I wish to thank Bo Särlvik and members of the seminar on Western European party systems for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Needless to say, I alone remain responsible for shortcomings

Abstract

This study discusses some of the test that have been performed on the hypothesis originally advanced by Lipset and Rokkan in 1967 that the modern party systems were frozen along the cleavage lines of the 1920's. It is found that most if not all of the studies of trend/variability character are fraught with problems of both methodology and measurement and hence cannot be used as evidence either for or against the theory. Indeed, it is the final conclusion of the article that Lipset and Rokkan have framed their hypothesis in such a way that it is inherently untestable.

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