Paper 1: Voting behaviour and the media Flashcards
why was class alignment, in the past very helpful for predicting voting behaviour?
Possibly as many as 80 per cent of people voted the way their social class indicated. Even in 1979, class voting was probably the most important factor in determining how people voted. Most A and B voters favoured the Conservatives while the D and E classes mostly voted for Labour. The C1 class was typically, though not overwhelmingly, Conservative, and C2 was mostly Labour.
This meant that the political battle was largely fought among two types of voter: those whose class identity was not clear and those who did not vote the way their class indicated that they might.
This latter group were known as ‘floating voters. It also meant that the C1 and C2 classes were the key groups in determining electoral outcomes, so small swings by the floating voters in these two classes could have a major impact on the electoral result. Consequently, the main parties would tailor their election manifestos towards these groups of voters, based on class identity.
Why until the 1970s was a person’s class a great indicator of how they would vote?
The reasons why class used to be strongly associated with voting trends are straightforward. Three links stand out:
• Voting was a part of a person’s class identity. To be middle or upper class was to be conservative; to be working class meant you would support the party of the working class.
• Both major parties developed strong, deep roots within communities, so there was a culture of voting for one party or another. The wealthy commuter belt around London, for example, was steeped in Conservative attitudes, while the poorer east of London had a strong sense of being a Labour-led community. Such roots were strengthened by Labour’s associations with strong trade unions.
• There was a selfish reason. The Conservative Party was perceived to govern more in the interests of the middle class and the better off, while Labour developed policies to help the working class and the poor. It was therefore rational to choose the party expected to benefit your class.
Why has class voting noticeably declined?
• A trend known as class dealignment. This is a tendency for fewer people to define themselves in terms of class. Social class has declined in importance.
• The main parties, including the Liberal Democrats, have tended, especially since the 1980s, to adopt policies that are ‘centrist’ and consensual, and can therefore appeal to a wider class base.
• There has been a rise in the influence of other factors. This has tended to replace social class as a key factor in voting behaviour. This helps to explain why the Conservative Party was able to win in each class group in 2019, as a result of a commitment to Brexit and alienation of traditional Labour, and explains the absence of class distinctions in Table 4.2. Indeed, as this table shows, in the 2019 general election class seemed to be almost irrelevant in determining how people cast their votes, with the Conservatives winning across all classes, similar percentages in the A, B, C1 and C2 classes voting Conservative and Labour, and only a small narrowing of the gap among classes D and E.
How is gender a dividing line for voting behaviour?
Over the years, parties have tailored strategies to target female voters, such as Labour’s 2017 pledge to conduct a gender-impact assessment on all policies and legislation and the party’s 2015 Woman to Woman pink minibus, which visited 75 constituencies to encourage more women to vote (though this was criticised for being a sexist campaign). Also, David Cameron’s and Tony Blair’s commitment to increase the number of female MPs and the policy of using all-women short lists for local council elections and party positions helped promote the visibility of women in politics at all levels.
While politicians clearly believe that such strategies are important in winning elections, it is not at all clear that there is an identifiable ‘women’s vote’, as women, like men, tend to vote based on issues other than their gender. It is perhaps unsurprising then that the gender gap in party voting is usually quite small, with men and women voting in similar percentages for political parties, and swings between parties over elections seeming to follow a similar trend.
