How has the behavior of voters changed over recent decades?

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Funmilayo Owolabi 12B1

How has the behavior of voters changed over recent decades?

What is the definition of voting behaviour? The sociological approach to voting behaviour emphasizes the impact of social structure, suggesting that social group memberships influence voting choices. In other words, it is the way in which voters decide to cast their ballot according to a variety of social, economic and psychological factors. Early studies of voting behaviour had always seen a strong correlation between voting behaviour and social class. This was known as partisan alignment where people had loyalty to a political party based on awareness of their class members. Over the decades, voters have changed their perception on parties due to factors affecting their environment. Voting behaviour can be seen to affect the outcome of elections, particularly general elections.

The behaviour of voters has significantly changed over the decades. This is due to a substantial amount of factors which play an important role in politics. These factors have an effect on the government, and who runs it. In 1971, Punett said “for most people, voting behaviour is habitual and ingrained.” There are four main competing theories which outline the reason for various voting behaviour over the decades. The rational choice is a theory which clarifies the reason for people’s choice in parties. During the 1980s, people were shrewd in their voting. They began to choose parties according to what they felt they could acquire from them. People wanted their own goals and aspirations met by the party, and if they felt they could achieve this they voted for the party. The voting process, therefore, became extremely biased, and people did not care for research the background of such parties. The media influenced the decisions of the masses, taking an active part in their biased votes. Dominant ideology model is a theory which bases its ideas on what the media think. According to research made on the dominant ideology, in 1945, key newspapers supported the labour party in the elections, and they turned out to be the winners. As the years progressed, statistics show that newspapers that support parties, usually win the elections. People are swayed with what is written in the media, as the media reflects the main idea of the society. The assumption is that if the media support a particular party, they usually win the general election, but this proved wrong the October 1974 election, where the media were unsure as to which party they supported completely. This is also seen in the 1950s as well.

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Class was also a very important factor in decades past. England was and still is considered to be a class-based society and this also affects the voting behaviour of individuals in the country. The sociological model states that class is the basis of all British politics. In the 1960s, the middle class were estimated to vote conservatives and the working class was expected to vote labour.  This generalistaion affected government for a long period of time as the status of the elections remained generally the same. This changed as the 21st century became modernized and less class based, but ...

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