The most comprehensive survey of 19 industrialised countries shows that identification with a party fell, on average, among 17 countries between the 1960s and 1990s. The average annual fall is usually less than 1 per cent, but over thirty years this amounts to a significant shift. Perhaps most significantly, party identification is down among the young, the better educated and the politically sophisticated. However, two key drivers of change stand out. There is consistent evidence that the number of issues which people are concerned with has increased.
Most people are still concerned about core economic issues.
For example, job security has remained a consistent concern for three quarters of the American population over the last twenty years. But other areas have simultaneously become more important. For example, concern for the environment, women's rights and animal welfare have shown consistent increases. These newer issues often focus on issues of lifestyle and quality of life, and reflect the well-documented shift towards a new set of 'core values'. As general levels of affluence have risen, the priorities of economic survival, security and insurance against basic forms of risk have been supplemented, and often supplanted, by a broader range of concerns.