NEW POLITICS AND PARTISAN ALIGNMENTS - VALUES, IDEOLOGY AND ELITES INAUSTRALIA

Since the emergence of New Politics issues, there has been considerabl e debate about their potential for creating party system realignment. However, this debate has largely ignored the role of political elites in responding to changes in mass electorates. In this paper, we develo p a model of realignment based on values and ideology which takes part y elites into account. The model is tested using data that are based o n national voter and parliamentary candidate surveys collected in Aust ralia during the 1990 federal election. A realignment hypothesis predi cts that the contemporary Australian party system is being replaced by a system reflecting New Politics/Old Politics conflict. An adaptation hypothesis predicts that the existing parties are adapting to New Pol itics concerns. The results show more support for the adaptation hypot hesis and although a potential for realignment exists, postmaterial va lues and environmental ideologies have as yet insufficiently penetrate d both elites and masses to bring this about. The results have major i mplications for the development of party alignments in other advanced societies.