These political divisions among people are called cleavages. Cleavages can be formally defined in a number of ways, to Stein Rokkan and Seymour Lipset (from the text book Representative Government in Modern Europe, pg. 235)for something to be a called a cleavage it must include three traits. The first necessary trait is to have a social division that distinctly separates people. It cannot simply be a political difference in ideology, like Republicans and Democrats in the United States. Secondly, those who are a part of this distinct background must be aware that they belong to the group and willing to act on it. Lastly, the distinct group must have some kind of organization. With these characteristics, people are able to influence the organizational structure and behavior of representative government. The most common type of cleavage is the center-periphery cleavage.

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