INTERGENERATIONAL CLASS MOBILITY AND POLITICAL PREFERENCES BETWEEN 1970 AND 1986 IN THE NETHERLANDS

In this article we test several hypotheses on the relative impact of respondents' and their fathers' class on political party preferences. We analyze 11 datasets, representing the Netherlands in the period 1970-1986, employing the design of Sobel's diagonal reference models. The relative effects of origin and destination class are estimated after controlling for denomination. The most important outcomes are: First, there is no status maximization effect, i.e. the relative impact of one's own class is the same for the upwardly mobile as for the downwardly mobile. Second, for young respondents who recently arrived in their class of destination, the impact of their fathers' class is stronger than of their own class. Third, there is an acculturation effect, i.e. the older one is and thus the longer one has been a member of the class of destination, the stronger the relative effect of the attained class becomes. The implication is that after the age of 30, the class of destination becomes relatively more important than the class of origin. However, even for the oldest respondents a significant origin effect remains.