On the Depth and Persistence of Generational Change

Abstract

Though generations is now a standard item in the vocabulary of political change, identification of their boundaries is notoriously difficult. In this article the authors stress two themes, one theoretical and one specific to Italy. The predominant interpretation of Italian voting in the late 1970s is that the political “season” favorable to the Communist party (PCI) ended in 1976. The authors argue that the generational surge continued through another election and was almost as strong in 1979 as in 1976. The election of 1983, not 1979, witnessed a sharp change in youthful voting behavior. From a theoretical perspective, what is significant is that the leftist generation of the 1970s altered its voting behavior as a consistent part of a broad shift in party images and social attitudes and that these attitudes lingered on among new voters in 1983, even as the voting behavior of this new cohort changed radically. It is hypothesized that this pattern is characteristic of generations in general and that it is part of the reason that generational boundaries are difficult to identify.