Evaluate The View That A Persons Age And The Media Have Now Replaced Social Class And Region As Clear Indicators Of Voting Behaviour Flashcards
Introduction
Many factors which contribute to the way we vote today eg age, media, class, region
Class and region are important due to safe seats and employment but to a smaller extent as age and media have now taken over as source shows consistent pattern of age in voting and shows large significance of the media
Paragraph 1- agree that age is very important
The younger you are, more likely to vote labour
The older, conservative
Source- “For every 10 years older a person is, the likelihood of voting labour decreases by 9 points.”
Perhaps due to conservative governments treating older people more favourably eg recent conservative governments have been committed to increasing primary care access and in contrast wanted to introduce national service for 18+
Evaluate- age is a big factor!
Disagree- although age it’s important, turnout has to be taken into consideration.
Eg 47% of 18-20 year olds voted in the 2019 election vs 74% of 65+
Therefore, age itself is an insufficient guide as to how people vote due to low turnout for younger generation so it is hard to gain insight. Although, does show a consistent trend in voting patterns
P2- agree- age has replaced class and region as an indicator
Age has replaced class and region as a clear indicator of voting behaviour
60% of 20 year olds vote labour vs 6% voting conservative
59% of 70 year olds vote conservative vs 12% vote labour
Class based voting has been undercut by class dealignment and issue based voting eg Brexit referendum voters less partisan so social class influence is declining
Disagree- persons class and region is an important indicator.
Considerable dominance in Scotland of SNP over labour
Establishment of safe seats link to class alignment as in higher class areas like Buckinghamshire, strong conservative safe seat
Paragraph 3- Media is a major factor indicating how people vote and has replaced social class
Source- “newspaper readership was a strong predictor of voting patterns”
Therefore, it is evident that a voters choice of newspaper can be used as an indicator of their voting intentions
Example- during the 2019 general election, The Sun heavily endorsed Boris with headlines reading “Back Boris at the Ballot Box”. The sun has traditionally leaned towards Conservative Party, meaning readers of the newspaper will most likely vote Conservative.
Shows that voters will be influenced by the newspaper that they read as newspapers lead towards specific parties.
However, the work of a person is an important indicator of how they vote
A persons sector indicates their social class- people are motivated by how parties attend to people in different sectors eg the NHS
62% of private sector workers voted for Conservative in the 2015 election
To some extent employment indicates voting. However, media is more significant in creating an echo chamber of ideas dictating how the electorate vote A persons
