Different Measures of Social Class – Different Results of Class Voting? The Colombian Case

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.

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

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1954890 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 73 (2) ◽

pp. 442-458 ◽

Cited By ~ 107

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.

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Ethnicity and Social Class: Voting in the 1973 Los Angeles Municipal Elections

The Western Political Quarterly ◽

10.2307/448135 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 521 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Robert M. Halley ◽

Alan C. Acock ◽

Thomas H. Greene

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Los Angeles ◽

Municipal Elections ◽

Class Voting

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Economic and Social-Class Voting in a Model of Redistribution with Social Concerns

Journal of the European Economic Association ◽

10.1093/jeea/jvz061 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 3140-3172 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Andrea Gallice ◽

Edoardo Grillo

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Social Status ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Tax Rate ◽

Class Differences ◽

Preferences For Redistribution ◽

The Poor ◽

Class Voting ◽

The Rich ◽

Relative Standing

Abstract We investigate how social status concerns may affect voters’ preferences for redistribution. Social status is given by a voter’s relative standing in two dimensions: consumption and social class. By affecting the distribution of consumption levels, redistribution modifies the weights attached to the two dimensions. Thus, redistribution not only transfers resources from the rich to the poor, but it also amplifies or reduces the importance of social class differences. Social status concerns can simultaneously lead some members of the working class to oppose redistribution and some members of the socioeconomic elites to favor it. They also give rise to interclass coalitions of voters that, despite having different monetary interests, support the same tax rate. We characterize these coalitions and discuss the resulting political equilibrium.

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Ethnic vs Class Voting: The Case of Winnipeg, 1945

Canadian Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s000842390003835x ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 314-328 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Nelson Wiseman ◽

K.W. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Proportional Representation ◽

Data Sources ◽

Upper Class ◽

Class Voting ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

The City ◽

Prairie Provinces

This paper examines the relationship of social class, ethnicity, and voting in the city of Winnipeg in the 1945 provincial election. Our data sources were the 1946 census and provincial election returns. The Winnipeg provincial constituency was selected for a number of reasons. In 1945, it corresponded to the city of Winnipeg boundaries, thus permitting the correlation of the 1946 Census of the Prairie Provinces data with the October 1945 voting results. Second, it had both a large number of non-British voters and candidates, which allowed a test for the importance of ethnic voting. Third, Winnipeg had (and has) a large working-class population and pockets of upper-class areas, permitting a test for the importance of class voting. Finally, as a multi-member constituency returning 10 members, a system of proportional representation was employed. With 20 candidates in the running for 10 seats, 15 ballot transfers were necessary before all 10 candidates were declared elected. An examination of these ballot transfers permits a corroborating test for class and ethnic voting.

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Value Change in Industrial Societies

American Political Science Review ◽

10.2307/1962590 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 1289-1319 ◽

Cited By ~ 189

Author(s):

Ronald Inglehart ◽

Scott C. Flanagan

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Social Class ◽

Political Parties ◽

Political Development ◽

Political Movements ◽

Value Change ◽

World War ◽

Western Countries ◽

Class Voting ◽

Industrial Societies

Ronald Inglehart has argued that, while most of the major political parties in Western countries tend to be aligned along a social class–based axis, support for new political movements and new political parties largely reflects the tension between materialist and postmaterialist goals and values. This has presented something of a dilemma to the traditional parties, and helps account for the decline of social-class voting. Scott Flanagan takes issue with Inglehart's interpretation in several particulars. Although their views converge in many respects, Flanagan urges conceptual reorientations and adumbrates a different interpretation of post–World War II political development in Europe and Japan.

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Survey Research and Social Class in Venezuela: Evaluating Alternative Measures and Their Impact on Assessments of Class Voting

Latin American Politics and Society ◽

10.1111/j.1548-2456.2013.00187.x ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 55 (1) ◽

pp. 141-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Samuel Handlin

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Survey Research ◽

Decisive Role ◽

Household Composition ◽

Validity And Reliability ◽

Validity Assessment ◽

Class Voting ◽

Alternative Measures ◽

Very High

AbstractThe ascendance of the left in Latin America has sparked new interest in the politicization of social class. What factors should scholars consider in choosing and constructing measures of social class in survey research? To what degree can measurement affect results? This article evaluates several common measures in terms of validity and reliability. It then shows that alternative measures produce strikingly different results when examining class voting in Venezuela’s 2006 presidential election. Simple measures of household income or wealth, which fare poorly in validity assessment, suggest minimal levels of class voting. Various socioeconomic scales that also incorporate data on education and, in some cases, weights for household composition, suggest very high levels of class voting. The article provides guidelines for evaluating measures and illuminates the debate on class voting in Venezuela. Scholars have reached contradictory conclusions while using different measures, but the decisive role of measurement has gone unrecognized.

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