Voting is no longer a matter of loyalty to a certain class but a rational decision based on a range of factors
“Voting is no longer a matter of loyalty to a certain class but a rational decision based on a range of factors” To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence supports this view? (40 marks) Instrumental and expressive are models of voting behaviour; expressive models are about social background whereas the instrumental model is about rational choice. The instrumental model shows 3 main factors that affect voting behaviour to make it a rational choice; these 3 main factors are the consumer theory, lifetime learning and tactical voting. Whereas the expressive model has 4 main factors that are: family socialisation, interactionist model, embourgeoisement and class alignment/dealignment. When voting first came into place, everyone voted for which party was representing their class, e.g. labour was working class and middle class was the conservative party. But these days people base their decisions on many different factors, some vote on what their family vote for so they stay loyal in that respect but on the other hand others vote more tactically. The instrumental model suggests that people vote through the consumer theory,
Himmel Weit et al 1981 stated that voting is like a political market place, they said that people vote on which party matches their own personal values therefore this sociological argument supports that people aren’t loyal to their own class, but they are loyal to their own values and therefore support rational choice. A criticism of this theory is that not everyone is brave enough to stand up to his or her own values and therefore conform to their social background. Because of this people tend to go with family socialisation which is where a child follows in their parents ...
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Himmel Weit et al 1981 stated that voting is like a political market place, they said that people vote on which party matches their own personal values therefore this sociological argument supports that people aren’t loyal to their own class, but they are loyal to their own values and therefore support rational choice. A criticism of this theory is that not everyone is brave enough to stand up to his or her own values and therefore conform to their social background. Because of this people tend to go with family socialisation which is where a child follows in their parents footsteps, Butler and Stokes 1974 said that you get a party loyalty early on during primary socialisation, therefore not all voting is rational choice. The interactionist model supports that voting is based on the social background of an individual as evidence by Heath, Jowell and Curtice 1985 stated that interaction with families, friends and work colleagues might influence an individuals decision on who to vote for, and they also said that voting choice is centred around social class, as if you are middle class then most people that you talk to would be in the same class as you. A criticism of the interactionist model is that an individual could be headstrong enough to stick to what they believe in, and in today’s society most people don’t care if you go against your class, it isn’t as shamed upon as it was before the 1970’s therefore people tend to become deviant voters. The instrumental model states that voting is tactical, tactical voting emerged in the 1980’s mainly due to convergence, as the left wing and right wing parties converged towards the centre and therefore shared the same views and both parties supported working and middle classes in some way. Because of this both parties have become similar and therefore people tend to adopt a rational and tactical way of voting as people are most likely to switch between the 2 parties and therefore they sway from class loyalty. Another factor that supports the statement that voting is a rational choice rather than class loyalty is evidence by the expressive model, Crewe 1993 found that after the 1970’s people stopped being loyal and stopped being class aligned and therefore results of the elections were harder to predict, as before the 1970’s middle class would vote for conservatives and the working class would vote for labour, this shows class alignment, whereas now the results from voting show class dealignment. However the expressive model also shows that embourgeoisement has probably affected class alignment as most people have started to become and feel middle class, as its not unusual for most people to go on holidays and have 2 cars and a mortgage, but before the 1970’s these would be a luxury and you would seem “rich” but now it’s the norm, therefore class wealth is getting higher and higher as the economy grows. Because of this when Tony Blair was in power he reinvented the labour party and brought out new labour which appealed more to middle class, therefore this goes against class loyalty and supports the statement that voting is more to do with rational choice. As the economy grows so does the amount of young urban professionals within the country, the instrumental model states that people vote through pocket book voting, and Downs 1957 stated that people consider their job and other factors when voting, and they decide on whichever party they feel could make them the richest. Even if the party wasn’t 100% right for them, they didn’t care they just wanted the party which would make them the most money. For example on the 1980’s a lot of young urban professionals voted for conservatives as it focussed on making money for the individual, but Margaret Thatcher who was in power then started cutting money to hospitals and stopped free school milk, but the young urban professionals didn’t care as they would get more money. Therefore pocket book voting only supports the main statement that voting is based on a rational decision to a certain extent, as this theory by Downs 1957 isn’t very rational at all, it just portrays voting as a money making business, however it does support the view that voting is no longer a matter of loyalty to a certain class, as people become selfish and they think about their own values and what they want rather than what’s best for the society and for their class. The best theory that supports this statement the most is by the instrumental model and it is the lifetime learning theory as it takes all the theories into account and McAllister and Rose 1990 takes into account that every individual is different and therefore voting has become based on rational choices based on values and social background, and it will never be class loyal again, therefore voting has become volatile, and therefore this theory supports that voting is no longer a matter of loyalty to a certain class but a rational decision based on a range of factors which have been shown in the expressive and instrumental model of voting behaviour.
