Is Voting Behaviour Determined by Social Class?
The Class System was Seen as a Big Factor in Elections-is it still?
There are a number of factors which affect the way people vote in elections. These are a mixture of long and short term factors, and also sociological and political factors. One such factor is social class, and it has been argued that voting behaviour is determined by social class.
What is social class?
Social classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society, often as economic or cultural groups. Social class can be determined by things such as income, the amount of property own, education and family.
Why is Social Class Considered to be Key to Voting Behaviour?
Traditionally, social class has been seen to be the most important factor associated with voting behaviour. In 1967, Peter Pulzer claimed that "Class is the basis of British party politics; all else is embellishment and detail." The idea can be substantiated with the fact that the Labour Party was founded with a commitment to the working class, and its origins lie in the trade union movement.
During the years 1946-1970, there was strong party alignment to the dominant two parties in British politics: the Labour and Conservative Parties. Membership of political parties was very high compared to that of other countries and people really identified with the party and supported the policies of the party they voted for. Electoral volatility was low with few people changing their vote between elections.
In 1963, Butler and Stokes put forward the sociological model of voting behaviour. The basic idea behind this model was that social class indicated how a person is socialised within their family, which leads to party identification, which in turn leads to voting intentions and political attitudes.
Changes in Voting Behaviour
Since the 1970s there has been a low, but steady change in trends and voting behaviour. Whilst in the past the working class have typically voted for the Labour Party, and the middle/upper classes have voted for the Conservative Party, things have changed.
For example, in 1959, the working class vote for Labour was 62%, but in 1983, it had fallen to 38%. Labour's traditional support base is falling and the decline in the British economy over the last 30-40 years means that working class jobs are scarcer than they used to be.
Since the 1980s, new patterns of voting have emerged. These were identified by Duneleavy in 1983 as:
- class dealignment- the weakening in the correlation between social class and voting behaviour.
- partisan dealignment- a decline in the strong attachments felt by voters to a particular political party.
Class and partisan dealignment may have occurred due to the idea that class divisions in Britain are no longer as defined as they once were. Labour is now considered by some to be the party of the public sector as opposed to the working class. Obviously this theory is not faultless, and both the Conservative and Labour Parties have many voters which might be considered to be from the other party's typical voting base.
Other Determinants of Voting Behaviour
More recently, voting factors such as ethnicity, religion and gender have come to the fore, whilst social class is thought to have taken a bit more of a back seat.
Social class is still a major determinant of social class, however it is not the only one.
Sources:
Voting Behaviour- S-Cool
British Polling Station
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