Social Cleavages and Party Constituencies in Diversity-Embracing Societies: The Case of Canada.

The article emphasizes that Canadian political parties are based on familiar social cleavages, that is, religion, region, nationality and national origin, language, ethnicity, class, and economic sector. It also records the persistence of the linkage of the social differences to the parties even as the party system has changed. The theoretical significance is in the demonstration that parties promote the interests of some social groups while excluding others even in political systems that attempt to lessen the legitimacy of intergroup conflict.