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.

scholarly journals The intergenerational foundations of class voting: social mobility and electoral choice in Western Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Ciccolini ◽  
Juho Härkönen
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Voting Choice

Scholarly explanations of the survival of left parties and the upsurge in mainstream politics discontent often refer to voters' intergenerational mobility resulting from the post-industrial transition. As the occupational structure evolves, voters across generations are exposed to heterogenous life chances, and the social elevator progressively alters class voting patterns. Yet empirical evidence for the electoral implications of social ascent and decline as well as their reasons is mixed at best – likely because most empirical studies seek for homogenous average mobility effects. To address this limitation, we analyse the diverse consequences of mobility across social groups in a quasi-descriptive fashion by applying a cutting-edge ANOVA-based OLS model. Contrarily to prior studies, this approach allows us to identify class-specific mobility effects on voting (ceteris paribus), consistently with theory. Our analyses draw on individual-level detailed information on both intergenerational social mobility and political behaviour from the European Social Survey (rounds 1-9) across 19 Western European countries. Although scholarly accounts on the consequences of social mobility averagely find little to no support in our analyses, we do observe some significant and substantial class-specific effects of both social ascent and descent on voting choice.

Issue Salience and Party Choice

1929 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. RePass
Keyword(s):  
Survey Research ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Measurable Effect ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Voting Choice ◽  
First Time

A number of leading studies of voting behavior in recent years have concluded that specific issues are not a salient element in the electoral decision. These studies have indicated not only that voters are unfamiliar with most issues, but also that the electorate is generally unable to detect differences between Republican and Democratic positions on issues. Using the same Survey Research Center interviews upon which these previous findings were based, this article modifies these previous evaluations. This study concentrates on data from the 1964 election —a campaign that was notable not for the issues it raised, but rather for the public's strong reactions to the candidates. The findings in this article show that, even in 1964, most people were concerned with a number of specific issues and that these issue concerns had a very measurable effect on voting choice. Furthermore, large proportions of people were able accurately to perceive the differences between the parties on those issues that were salient to them. The major reason these findings are so different from previous results is that new measures and a different approach were used—particularly open-ended interview material that for the first time allowed the researcher to discover the issues that were salient to the voter.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sören Holmberg ◽  
Henrik Oscarsson
Keyword(s):  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Personal Contact ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Ideological Voting

This chapter introduces a section consisting of four studies of Swedish exceptionalism which focus on aspects of elections and voting behavior. A study of voter turnout shows that Swedes are exceptionally participatory. The second chapter in the section, which presents an analysis of class voting, indicates that Swedes are exceptionally old-fashioned and still vote according to the occupational class they belong to. An examination of ideological voting suggests that Swedes are exceptionally influenced by the classic left–right divide. And the final chapter takes as its subject involvement in election campaigns, and finds that Swedes are in exceptionally little personal contact with parties and candidates.

Electoral Choice and Religion: Turkey

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Çarkoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Trends Over Time ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
Islamist Movement ◽  
Over Time

With a conservative party in power since 2002 that has its roots in the pro-Islamist movement, the influence of religiosity upon party choice has attracted a lot of attention in the literature on Turkish elections and voting behavior. However, this literature uses measures of religiosity that change from one study to another and hence diagnosing trends over time or assessments concerning the influence of religiosity remains challenging. This article aims to first review the findings concerning the effect of religiosity upon party choice in Turkey. Second, using the Turkish Election Studies data for four general elections in the 2002–2015 period a unified comparable framework is adopted to evaluate the changing nature of the influence of religiosity upon party choice. The findings reached suggest that religiosity remains a potent variable in shaping party choice. However, over time and across parties its influence varies. A sectarian divide between the Sunni majority and the Alevi minority also appears to be useful especially differentiating the left-leaning main opposition party. This sectarian divide also seems to be shifting over time.

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.

Left-Right Orientations and Voting Behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Jou ◽  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Conservative Policy ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Societal Influences ◽  
Voting Choice

One of the ways that citizens and elites orient themselves to politics is in reference to a Left-Right vocabulary. Left and Right, respectively, refer to a specific set of progressive and conservative policy preferences and political goals. Thus, Left-Right becomes a framework for positioning oneself, political figures, and political parties into a common framework. Most citizens identify themselves in Left-Right terms and their distribution of these orientations vary across nations. These orientations arise both from long-term societal influences and from the short-term issues of the day. Most people also place political parties in Left-Right terms. This leads citizens to use Left-Right comparisons as an important factor in their voting choice, although this impact varies considerably across nations. Most parties attract voters that broadly share their Left-Right orientations.

The Changing Swedish Electorate

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Electoral Strategies ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Socioeconomic Composition

This article attempts to assess the contribution of long-term changes in Swedish social structure to three recent developments in Swedish electoral behavior: the decline of the Social Democrats, the decline in class voting, and the increase in the volatility of party preference. The author argues that the decline of the Social Democrats cannot be attributed to long-term structural changes in the electorate but rather is a product of the policies and electoral strategies pursued by the parties. The decline in class voting is found to be partly attributable to long-term structural change. Original secondary analysis of survey data is then presented to show that the socioeconomic composition of individuals' places of residence affects their voting behavior independent of individual-level characteristics. The author then argues that the parties' policies and electoral strategies have reinforced the tendency toward decreasing class voting. Finally, both long-term structural changes and the decline in class voting itself appear to have caused the increase in the volatility of party choice.

Partisan Orientations over the Long Haul: Results from the Three-Wave Political Socialization Panel Study

1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 1000-1018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kent Jennings ◽  
Gregory B. Markus
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Consistent Reinforcement ◽  
Generational Effects ◽  
School Senior ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Voting Choice ◽  
The Relationship

The present study examines the dynamics of partisanship and voting behavior by utilizing national survey panel data gathered in 1965, 1973, and 1982 from two strategically situated generations—members of the high school senior class of 1965 and their parents. At the aggregate level, generational effects appeared in the persistently weaker partisan attachments of the younger generation. At the individual level, strong effects based on experience and habituation appeared in the remarkable gains occurring in the stability of partisan and other orientations among the young as they aged from their mid-20s to their mid-30s. Dynamic modeling of the relationship between partisanship and voting choice demonstrated that the younger voters had stabilized at an overall weaker level of partisanship, leading to more volatile voting behavior which, in turn, failed to provide the consistent reinforcement needed to intensify preexisting partisan leanings.

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.

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