The election campaign is now more important than long term factors in shaping voting behaviour discuss.

Authors Avatar by kidnamedconor (student)

Conor Hamer

‘The election campaign is now more important than long term factors in shaping voting behaviour’ discuss.

Elections take place throughout Britain on a regular basis, for example only last week was there the controversial Police Commissioner elections. There are different types of elections such as, by- elections, local elections, devolved elections, European elections and general elections. Electoral campaigns have become more influential in recent elections due to the impact the media has these days. Long term factors that include social class, age, gender, region, and party identification, are also influential in elections, however not as much as they used to. This now has posed the argument that ‘the election campaign is now more important than long term factors in shaping voting behaviour’.

Traditionally the public, voting on elections, often voted for the same party repeatedly. This is because a strong link existed between social classes and voting. More people voted for the party they felt best represented their social group, for example the majority of working class would vote for Labour whereas the middle class would usually vote for the Conservatives. However, since the 1980’s class voting has become less pronounced in general elections due to the distinctions between classes, being eroded. The evidence of class dealignment is clear as the Conservatives gained more support from the working class in the 1980’s, while Labour made significant gains among the middle class voters in 1997. This shows that the relationship between social class and voting, which is a long term factor in shaping voting behaviour, has weakened with fewer people voting for their social class. Despite this decline in class voting Labour still remains the most popular among the working class, as well as Conservatives are still the most popular among the middle class. Furthermore, another long term factor that traditionally shapes voting behaviour is partisanship which is the stable, long term feelings of positive attachment to one of the main parties. This type of identification developed through socialisation or social learning in the home, school, workplace and neighbourhood, with most people voting for the same party as their parents. Again, this long term factor has declined. As evidence shows in 1965, 43% of voters were ‘very strong’ supporters of one of the main parties, but in 2005 only 13% were. Another long term factor such as gender is also influential on voters, for example for much of the post war period; women were more likely to vote Conservative than men. However Labour then made significant gains among women in the 1990’s, but then the Conservatives overtook labour in 2010. This shows that the long term factor, gender, still plays a huge part in today’s elections. Age also is influential among voters, with Labour outperforming the conservatives among young voters in the 1990s and Conservatives traditionally performing better among older voters. The region of which people are from is another long term factor that effects and has effected who people vote for. A north-south divide is evident, with more people in the south voting for Conservative and more people in the north voting Labour. It is still apparent that long term factors are important despite issues such as class dealignment and partisan dealignment, with factors such as age, gender and region still shaping voting behaviour.

Join now!

In recent elections there has been an increase in floating voters, which are voters without a strong attachment to a political party and switch their vote from election to election. This has caused for parties to work harder for the vote of the public. There has also been an increase in rational choice, which is the focus on the choices made by individual voters. This includes issue voting, which is the idea that people vote for the party whose policies will benefit them the best. Valence issues such as the economy and health are judged by voters on trust and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay