Long and short term factors for Voting Behaviour

Question 1

Why has Partisan dealignment weakened in recent years

Answer 1

• there is a changing class system due to less manual labours and a ‘new’ working class
• the social class has become less clear cut
• growing affluence means more middle class citizens

Question 2

Define the Classes A,B and C1

Answer 2

A - Higher managerial and professional workers, such as business owners and judges

B - Middle managers and professionals, such as store managers, teachers and lawyers

C1 - Clerical workers, such as office clerks and secretaries

Question 3

define the classes C2, D and E

Answer 3

C2 - skilled manual workers, such as builders, electricians and plumbers

D - Semi-skilled and unskilled workers, such as day labourers and factory workers

E - the unemployed, pensioners and those unable to work

Question 4

What has been the trend with gender and parties

Answer 4

Women are more likely to vote for the conservatives
Men are more likely to vote for Labour

Question 5

Name a reform introduced showing more gender inclusion

Answer 5

1997 Blair introduced all-women shortlists to increase the No. of women in parliament

Question 6

How does gender affect the topics that people are most interested in

Answer 6

typically it was found that Women care more about Health and education and Men care more about Foreign intervention and Nuclear issues

Question 7

Why are does Voting behaviour of older and younger voters change

Answer 7

Older people are more focussed on retaining tradition and they are worried about change

younger people typically have more liberal views which tend to be influenced by social media

Question 8

Fact showing the disparity in age and voter behaviour

Answer 8

• in 2019, 62% of 18-24 year-olds voted for Labour and only 19% voted for Conservatives
• in 2019, 63% of 65+ groups voted for Conservatives and only 17% voted for Labour

Question 9

Fact showing that younger voters are more influenced by social media

Answer 9

in 2017, Corbyn’s social media campaign gave Labour a 47% lead over Tories with 18-19 year-olds

Question 10

How does region play a role in voter behaviour

Answer 10

• typically we see that the south vote for Conservative and there is the ‘red wall’ in the north

Question 11

fact showing the South support Tories

Answer 11

in the 1983 election, 85% of voters in the south supported Thatcher

Question 12

Why does region not matter much

Answer 12

It really links back to the class system, typically there are more working class people in the North and this means they vote for Labour (in 1964-66, 64% of working class people voted for Labour)

We see that London typically sides with Labour even though it is in the South, showing there is no true effect

Question 13

How does ethnicity change voter behaviour

Answer 13

typically we see that ethnic minorities seem to support Labour and white voters tend to support conservatives more, however this links back to class

87% of the UK population is white so it makes it less relevant

Question 14

Issue voting / rational choice

Answer 14

• Issue voting is where voters base decisions on political issues rather than other relevant factors such as party leadership
• rational choice theory is the idea that individuals make rational choices and achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own best interest
• In 2019 when the issue was Brexit the Hypothetical red wall was broken and they boosted their share among leave voters up to 74%

Question 15

What is valence voting

Answer 15

• relates to the issues where there is common agreement on what is best for the country but there is disagreement on which party will be able to best deliver the changes
• the book ‘Affluence, austerity and electoral change in Britain’ by Whiteley states that voters choose parties based off of the evaluations of their competence rather than competing ideologies or policies
• for example in 2019 voters liked the policies in Labour’s manifesto but they did not trust them to deliver on their policies

Question 16

Governing competence

Answer 16

• links to idea that the opposition don’t win election, the government is. Suggests that elections are largely decided by the performance of the government of the day
• the 1997 election was in part decided by the poor major government which led to the rise of New Labour
• In the 2010 election many viewed it as a referendum thanks to the failures of the Labour government with the economic crisis