Abstract
The paper explores the possibility of application of the material - post-material cleavage at the local and regional levels of a political system. Although the concept was originally designed decades ago for application on the central (i.e. national) level of a political system, it is still relevant, even though for different reasons.
On the basis of an analysis of the current state of research in the field and a critical evaluation of existing contributions to the topic, the paper seeks to delineate conditions under which the concept of cleavages may be applied at subnational levels of governance. The concept of multilevel governance is then used to define specific features of these levels and to test to possibility of such a shift.
The results show that the concept can be used at the local and regional level; however, it is critical to amend the given definition of a cleavage, especially in terms of institutional manifestation.