Two Models of Class Voting

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Weakliem
Keyword(s):  
Party Politics ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Class Voting

Until the late 1960s, most informed observers agreed with Pulzer's well-known claim that ‘class is the basis of British party politics; all else is embellishment and detail’. More recently, however, most analysts have come to believe that there has been a decline in the association between class and party choice, a development that is generally referred to as ‘class dealignment’. Nevertheless, several researchers have challenged this new consensus and argued that there has been little or no trend in the association between class and party.

Perceived Party Choice and Class Voting

1993 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald D. Lambert ◽  
James E. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
National Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Conceptual Domain ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Class Background ◽  
Canadian Politics ◽  
Party Differences

AbstractThis article presents tests of effects of social class background on voters' perceptions of most and least favoured federal parties, perceived party differences and subjective class voting. The data were taken from the 1984 Canadian National Election Study. The results show that subjective class voting extended to voters' beliefs about least liked parties. And the greater the perceived differences between voters' preferred parties and their second and third choice parties, the greater the level of class voting. An index which combined respondents' perceptions of the class orientations of most and least liked parties increased the estimate of the level of subjective class voting that takes place. The results suggest that this index provides an improved way of assessing subjective class voting. This index is a useful improvement upon previous measures because it incorporates information on the extent to which voters see Canadian politics as presenting class-based alternatives. This is the conceptual domain of the dependent variable in the literature on subjective class voting, but perceived class-based alternatives are seldom measured directly.

Religious vs. Linguistic vs. Class Voting: The “Crucial Experiment” of Comparing Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Switzerland

1979 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 442-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arend Lijphart
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Party System ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Electoral Behavior ◽  
Crucial Experiment ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Religious Factor

For the purpose of determining the relative influence of the three potentially most important social and demographic factors on party choice–social class, religion, and language–a comparison of Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Switzerland provides a “crucial experiment,” because these three variables are simultaneously present in all four countries. Building on the major earlier research achievements in comparative electoral behavior, this four-country multivariate analysis compares the indices of voting and the party choice “trees” on the basis of national sample surveys conducted in the 1970s. From this crucial contest among the three determinants of party choice, religion emerges as the victor, language as a strong runner-up, and class as a distant third. The surprising strength of the religious factor can be explained in terms of the “freezing” of past conflict dimensions in the party system and the presence of alternative, regional-federal, structures for the expression of linguistic interests.

The Never-Ending Story of Class Voting in Sweden

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Oskarson
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Political System ◽  
Simple Description ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
System P ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Class Cleavage ◽  
Class Identification ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter presents a broad description of the development of class voting in Sweden. The aim of the study goes beyond simple description, however, in that it presents and applies a wider frame for understanding the development of the relationship between class position and party choice. The chapter begins with a reflection on the theoretical basis for class voting as representing the relation between a social and a political cleavage. It then examines developments in voting patterns in constituencies of different social and political composition and as an expression of class identification, and concludes that the class cleavage is still a viable characteristic of the Swedish political system.

The Decline of Class Voting in Britain: Problems of Analysis and Interpretation

1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark N. Franklin ◽  
Anthony Mughan
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Simultaneous Estimation ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Modeling Techniques ◽  
Voting Choice

Social class has long been recognized as being the preeminent influence upon electoral choice in Britain, but recent studies provide support for the argument that it has become a weakened force. These studies differ only in the interpretation that they place on its decline. Through the simultaneous estimation of the effects on voting choice of class measured by occupation, and other variables, this article shows how one of the recent studies implied an overestimate of the declining importance of occupational class. Further it shows that when the indirect effects of class on party choice are taken into account, by means of causal modeling techniques, its preeminent position in determining voting choice in Britain can still be seen. The article seeks to clarify the nature of class-based voting behavior during a period of dramatic decline in this phenomenon, terminating at the last point at which traditional measures can reasonably be used.

The 2000 Presidential Election and the Foundations of Party Politics

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Johnston ◽  
Michael G. Hagen ◽  
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Party Politics
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