Trends In Voting Behaviour

Question 1

Class voting

Answer 1

Certain classes have a connection with specific political parties, and will principally vote for them.
Traditionally, working-class voters (also known as C2, D, E) have voted with the Labour Party, whereas middle-class voters (also known as A, B, C1) have voted Conservative.
The 1950s were a high point for partisan alignment.
Since then, there has been a blurring of class identification with a rising aspirational middle class, which was evident in the 1979 election and increased in the 1980s-1990s. Nonetheless, even as recently as 1992, middle-class voters were still significantly more likely to vote Conservative than Labour. The real change occurred in 1997 when there was a huge switch across classes to Labour under Blair.

Question 2

Class and partisan dealignment

Answer 2

• Class alignment (or class dealignment) refers to individuals identifying (or not) with a certain class.
• Partisan alignment (or partisan dealignment) refers to the attachmerit (or not) that exists between an individual and a certain political party.
Class alignment normally coexists alongside partisan alignment. So, when people strongly identify with a social class, they also strongly associate with a certain political party (for example, the working class and the Labour Party in the 1950s). Equally, as people stop identifying so strongly with a social class, they stop identifying strongly with a political party (for example, the many working-class voters who voted
Conservative in 1979).

Question 3

Regional and example

Answer 3

The north of England and large urban towns and cities tend to vote Labour; the south and rural areas tend to vote Conservative.
Traditionally, Scotland has been a Labour electoral heartland, but that changed after the independence referendum and the
SNP won 56 out of 59
Scottish Westminster seats in the 2015 general election.

Question 4

Gender

Answer 4

Female voters tend marginally to favour the Conservatives. The difference, however, is small. Over the past five elections, the disparity between the percentage of men and women voting either Labour or Conservative hasn’t gone over 4 per cent.

Question 5

Ethnic groups

Answer 5

Evidence suggests that ethnic groups are more likely to vote Labour (for example, approximately 60-70 per cent of black and minority ethnic (BME) voters voted Labour in the last four elections). There is an overlap here with class, as poorer ethnic minority groups vote Labour and the more prosperous groups favour the Conservatives.

Question 6

Age

Answer 6

Trends show that young people tend to vote Labour and older people vote Conservative. This could be because older people may have a greater interest in maintaining the status quo.
Age also influences election turnout. The older you are, the more likely you are to vote. This was even true in the 2017 general election.