To what extent does social class influence voting behaviour?
It is often said that social class is the key determinant in voting behaviour. When the next Government elections come up is it true that the middle and upper classes will vote for the Conservative Party and the working class vote for the Labour Party? Or is voter behaviour more complex than that? This essay explores how the impact of social class on voting behaviour has changed over the years.
Social class was the main determinant of voting behaviour back in the 1960s because in the 1960s Britain was a country in which social class was much more apparent and easy to define. Broadly speaking, people were ‘categorised’ as the Upper Class, the Middle Class and the Working Class. The class based system influenced many people’s attitudes and actions, this included voting. This led to a stability of voting patterns, which meant that voting habits seemed to be consistent and predictable. Also at the time there was a level of class alignment. This relates to the strong association of membership of a social class with support for a political party. This meant that people in social classes A to C1 would tend to vote for the Conservative Party and those in social classes C2 to E would vote for the Labour Party. This is known as the “Marsh Theory”. The “Marsh Theory” suggests that there were two main dominant parties, Labour and Conservative in which people voted accordingly to their Social Class. However, this led to a Middle England, when people in the middle class, lower middle class and working class aspired to better themselves and seek social mobility.
In the 1970s and the 1980s there were massive changes in the UK, which meant that social class was no longer the main determinant of voting behaviour. The changes made were in terms of the social class system, employment and demographic changes. These changes led to the “People’s Revolution”. This was when the line between socially mobile working classes and the existing middle classes was blurred. This led to class de-alignment and the breakdown of the long-term association of a social class with support for a particular party.
An example of this was when the Conservative Party reached out to the aspirations of people in the lower classes to win elections in the 70s and 80s. Margaret Thatcher, who was the leader of the Conservative Party, played a major role in attracting working class support. At the start of the 20th Century the working classes would vote for the Conservative Party because they promoted individual aspiration and many wanted to be associated with that idea. Margaret Thatcher brought that back when she was leader of the Conservative Party and that is one of the reasons why she stayed in power for so long. Those in the working class that voted for the Conservative Party became known as the “Working Class Tories.”
Although today social class is not seen as the main determinant of voting behaviour, it is still evident in election results. An example of this was in the 2005 General Election when 73% of those people in class A/B and class C1 voted for the Conservative Party whereas 88% of people in class C2 and class D/E voted for the Labour Party. Whilst this showed that social class certainly still influenced voting behaviour, the 2005 General Election was plagued by scandals such as the Iraq War. Therefore, saying that social class alone determined voting behaviour is wrong because there were other factors in the 2005 General Election that played a significant role making it hard to judge whether or not social class was as involved as it would have been pre 1970’s.
There are other factors apart from social class that can determine voting behaviour; one of them is age. Stereotypically many older people would vote for the Conservative Party because they favoured the elderly by introducing policies that would make them feel safe, this is also known as the ‘grey vote’. Many young people often vote for the Liberal Democrats because they are seen as being the “modern party”. They reach out to those young voters and introduce policies that would favour them. An example of this is abolishing tuition fees, something they did not stand by when forming a government with the Conservatives. In the 2005 General Election many people aged between 34-44 years voted for the Labour Party because those people were more influenced by the help they received from the Labour Party such as worker protection and job creation.
Gender can also determine voting behaviour because traditionally men voted for the Labour Party and women voted for the Conservative Party. It is also said that once women got the vote they voted more than men. This is shown in the 2001 General Election as 2% more women voted than men. Traditionally women were protected from the bad working conditions and from the influences of trade union membership whereas men were heavily influenced by trade unions and they were the ones that went out to work in the bad working conditions. However, this has changed as traditional gender roles and inequalities have subsided. This is evident for the Labour Party as they picked up more female voters in the 2001 General Election.
The mass media is arguably the main factor that determines voting behaviour now as it is so prevalent in our daily lives. It also has a major effect on determining UK elections. Newspapers can determine voting behaviour because during the General Election period many newspapers explicitly support a particular party. This means they will be reading stories that either take a positive slant on a party or take a negative slant on a party. For example in the 1992 General Election the Sun newspaper decided to support the Conservative Party and on polling day they released a scathing attack on then Labour leader Neil Kinnock, leading on the headline “Will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the light.” Labour subsequently lost the 1992 General Election even though opinion polls predicted they would win. With this headline being printed on polling day and many companies making an error of 8.9% in their predictions, many saw first-hand the influence mass media could have on voter behaviour.
The last factor that can determine voting behaviour is location of residence. Many people who live in inner cities and industrial areas are going to be influenced by trade unions protecting their jobs and wages. Then when polling day comes they will vote for the Labour Party because the Trade Unions are affiliated with the Labour Party. Those people that live in the county or in more affluent areas are going to vote for the Conservative Party because they are less influenced by trade unions and less reliant on public sector employment, which the Labour Party has traditionally invested in more than the Conservatives.
After looking into all the factors that can determine voting behaviour, I have concluded that social class in postmodern Britain doesn’t play as large a part in determining voting behaviour anymore because people now have a broader range of factors on which they choose their voting identity. In my opinion, due to the emergence of the mass media, I now believe this has a bigger influence on voting behaviour than social class.
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