Long Term Factors of Voting Behaviour

Long Term Determinants of Voting Behaviour

Party Identification

• Due to class, upbringing and other social influences people tend to identify with a certain political party
• Working class tend to vote Labour
• Middle class tend to vote Conservative
• This is however in decline as there are now more floating voters
• Opinion polls show that few voters actually strongly identify with a specific party
• Membership to the conservative party is down by over 1.5 million since 1950
• Party ideology changes - New Labour, Thatcherism

Social Class

• Social structures have alwas contributed to voter behaviour
• People are indocrtinated from birth by their families, neighbourhoods and other outside surrounding factors to support certain ideologies and reject others
• Butler and Stokes showed that many teenagers shared political values with their parents as they are their primary form of influence from childhood
• Class based voting- Pulzer

Geographical Factors

• North-South divide
• North tends to be more Labour orientated
• South tends to be more Conservative
• Industrial cities are mainly in the North
• Scotland is almost 100% SNP
• Rise of Scottish Nationalism
• …