Voting behaviour and Participation

Created by: sineadcullen
Created on: 04-06-17 16:00

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Voting Behaviour and Participation
- Recency factors
  - Dominant Ideology Model
    - voters influenced by ideology of powerful elites by role in things like mass media
    - Mass media
      - Big influence
        Conservative party backed by major newspapers - Sun, Daily Mail and telegraph and received 36.9% of vote, whereas UKIP backed by onetime Daily Star and received 12.6% of vote
      - Little influence
        Reinforcement theory : the media only reflects what the public already believes
        Conservative party despite being backed by major newspapers did't gain lot of support from 2010 - 2015, 2010 they received 36.1% of the vote and in 2015 they got 36.9%
  - Voting Context Model
    - voters behaviour varies depending on type of election
      - By-electtion
        Traditionally, by-elections act as an opportunity for constituents to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the sitting government
      - Electoral system used
        If a more proportional system is used then voters more likely to vote for preferred party as last chance of wasted vote
        2014 European Parliament election uses party list ad UKIP won
  - Rational Choice Model
    - Voters evaluate parties and vote o a range of factors like party policies and reputation
- Primacy Factors
  - Class
    - 45% of middle class voters voted Conservative in 2015 General Election
  - Gender
    - Women typically voted Conservatives u until the 1950s
      - However in the 2015 General election 37% of men voted Conservative and 38% of women did so though women is still bigger there isn't a huge difference
  - Ethnicity
    - 80% of Caribbean voters voted Labour in 2015 General Election
  - Age
    - Older voters tend to vote for more right wing policies and parties, younger voters are far more equalitarian
  - Class dealignment?
    - There has been class dealignment
      - Social Mobility
        embourgeoisement
        as working class become more middle class economically as does their voting behaviour
        Labour support from skilled working class in 1997 was 50% in 2010 it dropped drastically to 29%
      - Party Policy
        1980s Margaret Thatcher
        Right to Buy Scheme
        
        1990s Tony Blair
        tried to appeal to middle class voters and business leaders
        Middle class support for Labour Party in 1974 was 19% however this increased to 34% in 1997
        
        David Cameron 2015 - promised to remove over one million middle class families from 40p ta x bracket
    - There hasn't been class dealignment
      - 2015 General Election
        Labour
        D and E Voters - 41% voted Labour
        
        North East support - 46.9% voted Labour
        
        Conservative
        45% of middle class voters supported Conservatives
- Participation crisis?
  - There is a participation crisis because
    - Low turnout
      - thretens the governments legitmacyand questions mandate
        In 2015 General Election, the Conservative party won 36.9% of the vote. Although there was only a 66.1% turnout so only 24.4% of the electorate actually voted for the Conservatives
    - Decline in party membership
      - In 2015 only 30% of the public 'strongly supported' a political party
      - only 1% of the electorate2015 was a member of the 3 main political parties
  - There isn't a participation crisis because
    - there are other forms of political participation
      - Pressure Groups - RSPB has more members than the 3 main politial parties combined and doubled
      - E-democracy: petitions are popular ad from 2011-2015 over 150 e-petitions were signed by 10,000 signatures
    - Differential turnout : varying levelspf turnout across the country, the national average masks this, in Dunbarton East there was 81.9% turnout and in the age bracket 65+ there was 75% turnout

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Voting behaviour and Participation

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