Voting Behaviour

Upper Middle Class

Higher Managerial, administrative, professional

Middle Class

Intermediate managerial, administrative, professional

Lower Middle Class

Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial

Skilled working class

Skilled manual workers

Working Class

Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers

Non-workers

Casual labourers, pensioners, unemployed

Sociological Model

1. social cleavage indicated leading to…

2. the type of political socialisation in a family, leading to…

3. party identification, leading to…

4. political attitudes and voting intentions

Example of sociological model

Voters in the 1960s were often divided by class (working class voting labour, middle class voting conservative)

- WC person would have been socialised with other WC people - hence would identify with the WC party

Why did working class people vote labour?

Cultural class roots established in communities

“Labour values“ of community in WC areas

Self interest

Expression of identity

Criticisms of the sociological model

Inability to explain partisan de-alignment

overall emphasis on the utility of social class as an indicator of voting behaviour

failure to appreciate the significance of individual policy preferences and assessment of government performance on voting

Party Identification model

focus on childhood socialisation

difference between ‘partisans‘ and ‘floating voters‘

floating voters

floating voters are those not committed to one party, undecided at the start of campaign

partisan voters

those who are fiercely loyal to a particular party, and so will vote for them whatever happens

% of voters with strong party identification at elections

40-50% with fairly strong PI from 1964-2015

4 factors that can lead to class and party dealignment

economy

social mobility

party policy

participation

how does the economy effect party alignment

transition form an industrial to a post-industrial economy; decline of unionised industries eg. mining.

how does social moility effect party alignment?

ability to change your position within society; improved access to education and welfare. embourgeoisement - WC people become more MC so does their voting

how does party policy effect party alignment?

Conservatives under Thatcher made appeals to the working classes selling houses to make more people property owners. Labour under Blair make huge rebranding to win over business leaders and MC voters

how does participation effect party alignment

declining party membership means that parties have fewer core voters and must reach out to voters with more centralist policies. significant growth in support for 3rd parties

How has middle class voting changed over 3 general elections?

Conservative vote declined from 59% in 79 to 39% in 2010 (Blair campaign shift)

Labour vote has a general increase: 24% in 79 to 27% in 10 and 43% in 2017

Lib dem increased from 79-10: 15% in 26% (participation?) but decreased in 17 to 9%

how had skilled WC vote changed across 3 general elections?

Conservative: had a decrease form 79 to 97 - 41% to 27%, then increased again in 2017 to 47%

Labour: had increase from 79-97, 41% to 50% (tory failings?) then deceased to 29% in 2010 (party policy)

Lib Dems: increased from 79 - 15% - to 2010 - 22% - then decreased in 2017 - 6%

how has unskilled WC vote changed across 3 general elections?

Conservative: 34% in 79 to 21% in 97 to 47% in 2019

Labour: 49% in 79 to 59% in 97 (tory failings?) to 34% in 2019

Lib Dems: 13% in 79 to 17% in 2010 to 14% in 2019

Explain how class voting  has changed across three general elections (6)

•In the 1979 election there was significant class and partisan alignment within party vote choice, with large amounts of DE voters voting Labour and large amounts of AB voters voting Conservative (1)

•This was because of self interest as voters are likely to vote for a party that directly favours their interests (1) or the sociological theory that claims that voters are often socialised based on the class interests and surroundings and therefore vote the way their class predicts (1)

•However this alignment reduced significantly throughout the 1980s and 1990s (1) to the 1997 election where significantly more AB voters voted Labour and less DE voters voted for Labour (1) this continued to the 2017 election where although subjective class remained an important aspect of voting intention, class voting had considerably declined among UK election vote choice (1)

•This may have been because of class and partisan Dealignment, as parties often appeal to voters outside their class base (1) (such as Conservative policies of right to buy and Labour policies of not raising income tax (1)) or as the economy changed from industrial to post industrial there were lower amounts of working class voters (1) or because workers as they grew wealthier underwent a period of embourgoisement, as their interests changed through the process of social mobility (1).

Gender voting - female stats (1979-10-19)

• conservative: 49%/ 36%/ 44%

• labour: 35%/ 26%/ 11%

• lib dems: 13%/ 22%/ 12%

Gender voting - male stats (1979-10-19)

• conservative: 43%/ 38%/ 46%

• labour: 40%/ 28%/ 31%

• lib dem: 13%/ 22%/ 12%

gender stats - 18-24

conservative: men - 36%/ women - 18%

labour: men - 52%/ women - 73%