Because the secularization of society has tended to cause erosion to religious identities and to bring about a change in terms of intergenerational value the result is laden with many new issues that: "…cut across establish party cleavages; the impact of social and geographic mobility weakening community social networks; the rise of television broadcasting replacing older channels of political communications through partisan newspapers, personal discussion and party campaign organizations; growing multiculturalism resulting from migration, which was generating cross-cutting social cleavages based on racial and ethnic identities; and the increased complexity of newer issues on the policy agenda, such as globalization, environmentalism, sexuality, and international terrorism, that do not comfortably fit into older patterns of party competition16. As a result of these processes, identities based on social class and religious denomination no longer seem as capable of generating unwavering and habitual party loyalties in many postindustrial societies as they were in the post-war era, opening the way for new types of parties challenging the status quo." (Religious Party and Electoral Behavior, 2010)

The work of Deegan-Krause (2006) entitled: "New Dimensions of Political Cleavage" published in the Oxford Handbook of political Science reports that one "cleavage element' is merely a difference and the heading 'attitude' is stated in reference to 'normative' or 'value categories' while the heading 'institution' refers to activity elsewhere labeled as 'political, 'organizational', or 'behavioral'. Two cleavage elements are stated to represent a...

This is an area of study that is in need of additional and further research.
Bibliography

Smith, Bill; Miller, Ann W.; Archer, Thomas; and Hague, Carla (nd) Working with Diverse Cultures. Ohio State University Fact Sheet. Online available at: http://ohioline.osu.edu/bc-fact/0014.html

Religious Parties and Electoral Behavioral (2003) Sacred and Secular. Chapter 9. Online available at: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/Sacred_and_Secular/Chapter%209.pdf

Brazzel, Michael. "Building a Culture of Diversity in the Cooperative Extension System: A Paper to Foster Dialogue and Discussion About Pluralism in Extension." ECOP and ES-USDA National Diversity Strategic Planning Conference, Denver, Colorado, September, 1991.