1979 voting behavior case study

Question 1

Results

Answer 1

Thatcher and the Conservatives had a landslide victory against the incumbent Callaghan and Labour party

Question 2

Economic context

Answer 2

‘Winter of discontent’ in 1979, in which the government’s attempts to impose a 5% limit on pay increases collapsed as a series of strikes by health workers and others. Led to a sense of national paralysis and of Labour incompetence in being unable to control militant trade unions.

Question 3

Conservative party slogan

Answer 3

“Labour isn’t Working” as the government couldn’t grapple with economic and social breakdown

Question 4

Political context

Answer 4

Labour looked weak as the election as triggered by a withdrawal of support from nationalist parties after the result of refereundums of Scottish and Welsh devolution went against the government, leaving Labour with no majority.

Question 5

Social factors

Answer 5

Conservatives dominated upper and middle classes, while also making gains among the working classes for the first time (11% for C2, 9% for DE)

Question 6

Decline of the importance of class and social factors

Answer 6

-The social and political context made Labour look very weak.
-Thatcher actively appealed to the working class in her ‘Essex Man’ strategy, with policies such as the Right To Buy council houses and support of small businesses proving popular

Question 7

Rational Choice and Issue Voting

Answer 7

Rational choice and issue voting can also be seen to be important as the Conservatives’ manifesto of tax cuts and the right to buy scheme offered a radical change to voters following the post-war consensus.