✅Voting behaviour (class)

Voting behaviour=

the way in which people tend to vote

Why studying voting behaviour important

• Voting behaviour can explain political change

• Not just the change in govt, but in parties’ policies + ideological beliefs

Why people vote for a particular political party

• Many factors impact a decision

• Could be social + political factors such as age, gender ethnicity, class, or religion

• There are also short term factors such as issue voting, valence, leadership, party image, campaign, etc

Voting theories:

The sociological model

The party identification model

Rational-choice model

The sociological model

• Links voting behaviour to group membership. Voters adopt a party which reflects the economic + social position of the group to which they belong. This model of voting is only concerned w long-term factors i.e. social class, gender, ethnicity, religion + region

The party identification model

• People develop a psychological attachment to a political party. Voting is therefore partisan, often forged from your family + them reinforced by a group membership or social experiences

Rational-choice model

• Voting is a rational act + individual choose their preference on the basis of self-interest. Voters behave like consumers, + choose the party + policies which will benefit them most. This model emphasises ‘issue voting’, + suggests that parties can influence their electoral performance by revising or reshaping their policies

what was voting like until the 1970s?

• Until the 1970s voting patterns were stable + habitual

• Most voters could be labelled as ‘core’ voters, w only 1/5 being so called ‘floating voters’

Social classes in the UK

• Upper middle class (grade A)

• Middle class (grade B)

• Lower middle class (grade C1)

• Skilled working class (grade C2)

• Working class (grade D)

• Non-working class (grade E)

How classes voted 2024:

AB- 34% labour, 28% conservative, 15% Lib Dem-

DE- 36% labour, 21% conservative, 11% Lib Dem

who did lib dems consistently do better with in the 2024 GE

AB voters

what class of voters did labour not win back, + since what

DE voters since Tories broke the red wall

How classes voted 2015

AB- 26% labour, 45% conservative, 12% Lib Dem

DE- 41% labour, 27% conservative, 5% Lib Dem

Class dealignment=

the process by which individuals no longer identify themselves as belonging to a certain class

Partisan dealignment=

the process by which individuals no longer identify themselves on a long-term basis as being associated with a certain political party

Until the 1970s, class was widely seen as?

the key to understanding voting behaviour, stable Conservative-labour 2-party system 1945-70 was reflection of class alignment, w a heavy stress on political socialisation

1945-70 most voters had a clear + enduring?

identification with a particular party (partisan alignment + party identification model)

1964-66 % of working class labour + mid class conservatives

64% of working class voters voted labour, while 62% of middle class voted conservative

what brought an end to class alignment?

1970s- Thatcherism + new right, with their end of consensus politics

who were lib dems less consistent with 2024?

DE voters

what caused partisan dealignment?

 increased uncertainty about electoral outcomes due to swings + rise in smaller parties, due to increased education, voters having access to wider sources of political info through the media + ideological changes in parties since the 1980s

what caused class dealignment?

due to: changing class system as manual workforce has shrunk, cross-class locations as social class has become less clear cut, and embourgeoisement as growing affluence has led to working class voters to think they're middle class

red wall as an argument against class being an important factor in determining voting

Tories broke red wall + labour hasn’t won it back, northern working class no longer definite labour voters

2010 election ‘class voters’ %

 election saw 38% of electors being ‘class voters’