Voting behaviour part two

Question 1

what is valence and how does voting behaviour link to this?

Answer 1

valence refers to how competent a government is
this re- emphasises that individual’s vote based on the overall judgement on the competence of the rival political party’

Question 2

what is the party identification model?

Answer 2

it explains voting behaviour by understanding the split between ‘partisans and floaters’
partisans = loyal to a party
‘ floating voters’ = those who aren’t committed to a party

Question 3

How does age link to voting behaviour?

Answer 3

• as the electorate increases in age, they are more likely to be at the top of their earnings so they may favour traditional conservative policies such as low taxation
• in the 2017 general election, 61% of voters who over the age 65 voted conservative
• younger voters may be concerned with unemployment or education which are traditionally seen as elements that the labour party may tackle
• those under 35 tend not to vote conservative

Question 4

how does age link to voter turnout rate?

Answer 4

in the 2017 general elections out of those aged 18 -24 67% voted for labour 18% voted conservative
however, out of those aged 65+ 59% voted conservative and 23% labour in the 2017 general elections
Also, in the 2017 general election only 54% of those aged 18 - 24 used their votes , the lowest of any age category
on the other hand the highest voter turnout was among those aged 65+ with a 71% turnout

Question 5

How does social class link to voting behaviour?

Answer 5

political analysts argue social class remains the most important factor affecting voting behaviour
Voters in social classes A/B - i.e the higher/ intermediate, managerial, administrative professional occupation such as bankers, doctors are more likely to vote conservative with 47% of A/B voters choosing conservatives in the 2017 general election
market research from Ipsos MORI voters in social classes D/E ;semi-skilled/unskilled manual occupations i.e bar staff, call centre staff  are more likely to vote labour - this is supported by evidence which showed that 47% of D/E voters voted labour

Question 6

How would you elaborate on the link of social class and voting behaviour

Answer 6

there are historical differences in party differences such as lower tax in conservatives and reduced welfare support which would appeal to A/B voters

Question 7

How is gender linked to voting behaviour?

Answer 7

the issue of who women vote has shaped the policies of parties and campaign
an example of this would be David Cameron in 2014 who declared that Britain would ‘lead the change on women’s equality’
and the 2015 labour government who led a woman to woman pink minibus, visiting 75 constituencies targeting women who did not vote in previous elections

Question 8

Show the link between gender and voting behaviour

Answer 8

• traditionally women are more likely to favour the conservative party than the labour party
• research conducted by the Ipsos MORI shows that the gender % of votes between men and women showed that 38% of males vote conservative whereas 37% vote conservative whilst 30% of men vote labour whereas 33% of women vote for labour.
  the 2015 general election showed that gender was not a crucial factor in determining votes with only a slight male bias towards labour but the difference was small only about 4% difference vote for labour men/ woman - source = yougov.com