1. Changing Class Structure in the Post-industrial Netherlands political orientation of the ‘new social classes’ between 1970-2000 Ayse GüveliAriana NeedNan Dirk de Graaf University of Nijmegen ICS/Sociology A.Guveli@maw.kun.nl

2. Class structures for men for six five-year periods in the Netherlands (1970-1999)

3. Research Questions To what extent is the EGP class-schema less applicable to the occupational structure of Dutch society, given the structural changes related to the transition from industrial to post-industrial society? To what extent does the adjusted EGP class-schema predict people’s political orientation better than the EGP class- schema? To what extent do the distinguished new classes become more effective to explain the differences (effect size) in people’s political orientation over time?

4. Theories about post-industrial class structure Employment relations -difficulty monitoring the work -specificity of human capital ‘ new class theory’ -technocrats and specialists - Controllers and social and cultural specialists Materialists and Post-materialists Economical and Cultural elites

5. Adjusting EGP Class Schema Difficulty of monitoring the work Managerial versus social-cultural specialised knowledge based tasks Manager: more than 9 subordinates

7. Data Data gathered between 1970 to 2000 from 18 surveys (N=32700) ISCO Dependent variables Left v. right voting behaviour ‘New left’ v. right voting behaviour ‘Old left’ v. right voting behaviour Independent variables Standart EGP, adjusted EGP, education, sector of employment Controlled for: age and gender

10. Conclusion The adjusted EGP class schema is substantially better to explain people’s political orientation The distinguished ‘new social classes’ are more leftist than the ‘old classes’ The low-grade social and cultural specialists have formed themselves as the most leftist social class over time (1970- 2000) People employed in public sector vote more for left-wing political parties