One reason for this unexpected working class – conservative vote is the theory of Embourgeoisement. This theory is as follows; due to rising pay levels and a raise in living standards since the Second World War, there was a change in behaviour and attitude of working class voters, which made them more like the middle class, these were therefore now expected to vote Conservative. But, however this theory has had little support, as it does not explain the recline of middle class conservative votes.
Class dealignment also must be looked at when determining whether social class is a determining factor in voting behaviour.
Between 1945 and the 1970’s despite some working class – conservative votes, the voting patterns did seem to indicate strong class alignment. However, from the mid 70’s onwards many political scientists (Psephologists) have put forward arguments stating that class dealignment is taking place.
Some of the above-mentioned arguments are as follows:
First, Party dealignment. Class dealignment has been linked with party dealignment, which is a decline in party identification.
Second, Changes in occupational structure. Since the early 60’s there has been huge changes in the way this countries industry is run. The conservative party, under Margaret Thatcher, bit by bit shut down the majority of coal mines in Britain and cut down the activity of what could be called traditional industry. In these traditional jobs, the workforce would have had a very strong workers union to fight for the needs of the workers, these unions were in close link with the Labour Party and so most of these members were expected to vote Labour. But since thousands of these workers were got rid of, they moved to new jobs, where the unions were not formed in necessarily the same way and had a less strong link with the Labour Party. Therefore these workers now started to think about voting Conservative and so some of the Labour vote went to the Conservatives. This change in occupational structure can be counted as an influence of class dealignment.
The arguments for class dealignment continue on and on as many political scientists try to back up the idea of class dealignment.
If a full conclusion is to be reached as to the extent social class has on voting behaviour. The other social factors should be considered, these include regional differences, age, gender, religion and ethnicity.
One other social factor effecting voting behaviour is ‘regional differences’.
In the early 1980’s the north/south divide was often referred to. It was seen that the north of the country tended to vote Labour and the south of the country tended to vote Conservative. There were obviously reasons for this divide. The first being social class differences: Just as most recognise some relationship between occupational class and party support, most would also see some relationship between class and region. E.g. the south of the country contains more middle class homeowners than the north; this could explain many safe conservative seats in the south and many safe Labour seats in the north.
Another fact effecting regional differences are cultural differences: This means that people living in an area, tend to follow the ‘norm’ of that area, so those living in a predominantly middle class area tend to adopt the lifestyle and ways of the middle class and so could be expected to vote conservative. Therefore local influence affects voting trends.
Economic circumstances also effect regional differences in voting: It could be seen during the time the conservatives were in power it could be seen that those areas which had economic decline had seen a decline in conservative votes as it was the Tories who were controlling the countries economy. And this worked in vice versa; if a region did well economically then their support for the government would rise.
Support for other parties could to be classed as a factor, which can change the way regional differences can be affected.
Age, to, has an effect on voting behaviour, as different age groups tend to vote for specific parties. It is accepted that the younger generation tend to vote for the Labour Party and the older voters tend to vote for the conservative party. However there is a large chance of swing in the 18-22 vote and therefore both main parties cannot take this vote for granted.
Just as age can effect election results, so to can gender. Traditionally, men voted predominantly for Labour and women voted mainly for the Conservatives. Men tended to vote for Labour as traditionally the majority of men used to work in industry or were members of trade unions and therefore they had links with the Labour party. The women vote, however, is a little harder to explain. One reason for their conservative vote could be that they have not had chance to see Labour’s message as Labour traditionally showed its manifesto through the unions and to the workers. Another reason for their vote could be that women traditionally look for policies which focus on family life, which is what the conservatives originally were seen to do. This could therefore be the reason for the difference in voting between the genders.
There are two other social factors that can determine voting behaviour. Religion and ethnicity.
Originally the Conservatives had a close link to the Church of England (The church of England was at one point nick named ‘the Tory party at prayer’). This is mainly due to social class as the middle class traditionally were mainly Church of England. Therefore if social class affects the way voters vote, then religion would coincide with this.
The final social factor that could be seen to effect voting behaviour is ethnicity. Race effects voting behaviour, as can be seen by the high black Labour vote, this cannot be fully explained, but it is still an obvious factor. But within this category of ethnicity the main factors that effect the voting are political geography and class, which have already been covered.
So, as shown above, it can clearly be seen that there are many factors, which have an effect on voting behaviour besides social class. However, when attempting to fully answer the question; ‘To what extent is social class an important factor when considering why people vote the way they do’. A full conclusion must be reached as to the full effect social class has on voting behaviour.
Therefore I conclude that social class is a very large influence on voting behaviour and must be referred to when studying voting trends. However there are to many other factors which effect the way people vote.
So to sum up, voting behaviour has a large influence on voting behaviour, but all other factors too must be accepted.