Michigan versus Rochester: The dynamics of party identification in new democracies.

A few studies have looked at the development of party identification in new democracies, but have ignored the distinction between generations in the process of democratic consolidation. This paper tests how voters who were socialized in a socialist political system developed party attachments over time. The main issue of partisanship thereby is the question of its stability. Two rival theories - namely the Michigan and the revisionist Rochester model - are contrasted, by comparing factors that affect the dynamics of partisanship among several generations of citizens in newly democratized East Germany and those of veteran democrats in West Germany. Making use of mixed latent markov models, the change and stability in individual-level German partisan attachments are captured over a 15 year period via the German Socio-Economic Panel. Results suggest that differences between East and West Germans, as well as different generational patterns exist. Parental socialization and social class have less of an impact on the formation of partisanship for East Germans and they appear to make an `informed choice' regarding which party they feel close to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]