Factors Influencing Voting Behavior
Voting Behavior
Long term factors that may influence voting behavior over a long period of time include:
Social class
Gender
Age
Religion
Ethnicity
Social Class
“Class is the basis of British party politics: all else is embellishment and detail” (Pulzer)
Social class is one of the fundamental divisions that define post war British electoral politics.
Some would suggest that the social class of a person might explain their voting behavior.
Social groups will vote for political parties that serve their group interests best e.g. people that belong to the working class will vote for a political party that serves working class interests.
This is called ‘socio-political alignment’ and gave rise to strong class based party loyalties and class based voting.
Class based voting has dominated British politics for a long time and has given rise to stability in voting habits amongst the British Electorate.
Middle Class = ‘natural party’-Conservative
Working Class = ‘natural party’-Labour
However although still important, the influence of social class on voting behavior is still considered to be important there is growing evidence to suggest that other, notably short term influences are becoming more influential in deciding how a person votes in an election.
1945-70s: Voting behavior and the influence of social class
During this period in British politics there was a strong correlation between social class and party allegiance. The majority of voters considered themselves to be either working class or middle class.
The higher income groups favoured the conservatives because they favoured capitalism and less state intervention.
The lower income groups equated with Labour’s policies, which favoured a redistribution of wealth from rich to poor. Also most of the categories of earnings were trade union members. Most of the trade unions were affiliated to the Labour party.
As a result of electoral politics in these times demonstrated
Long term factors that may influence voting behavior over a long period of time include:
Social class
Gender
Age
Religion
Ethnicity
Social Class
“Class is the basis of British party politics: all else is embellishment and detail” (Pulzer)
Social class is one of the fundamental divisions that define post war British electoral politics.
Some would suggest that the social class of a person might explain their voting behavior.
Social groups will vote for political parties that serve their group interests best e.g. people that belong to the working class will vote for a political party that serves working class interests.
This is called ‘socio-political alignment’ and gave rise to strong class based party loyalties and class based voting.
Class based voting has dominated British politics for a long time and has given rise to stability in voting habits amongst the British Electorate.
Middle Class = ‘natural party’-Conservative
Working Class = ‘natural party’-Labour
However although still important, the influence of social class on voting behavior is still considered to be important there is growing evidence to suggest that other, notably short term influences are becoming more influential in deciding how a person votes in an election.
1945-70s: Voting behavior and the influence of social class
During this period in British politics there was a strong correlation between social class and party allegiance. The majority of voters considered themselves to be either working class or middle class.
The higher income groups favoured the conservatives because they favoured capitalism and less state intervention.
The lower income groups equated with Labour’s policies, which favoured a redistribution of wealth from rich to poor. Also most of the categories of earnings were trade union members. Most of the trade unions were affiliated to the Labour party.
As a result of electoral politics in these times demonstrated