This book investigates the extent to which political parties, rather than social change, dictate the persistence of class and religious divisions in modern electorates. The authors, Geoffrey Evans and N. D. de Graaf, utilize a comparative framework to challenge the conventional wisdom that social cleavages are inevitably eroding. By analyzing data across fifteen countries, they argue that the supply of political choices provided by parties is the primary mechanism that sustains or diminishes the relevance of social identity in voting behavior.

Experts in political sociology recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of electoral behavior and party systems. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the rigorous statistical methodology employed throughout the text.