Voting in Britain Resulting in Multiplicity of Factors - Coursework Example

Outline Introduction Alignment era between the 1940s to the 1970s The era of de-alignment The Era of Party identification and Class Voting Contemporary political factors that may determine party choice The general elections of 2005 The development theory of gender gap Conclusion Introduction This essay supports the argument that the issue of voting in Britain is as a result of multiplicity of factors. It does not rely on one factor alone. British voters make their choices by evaluating the performance of parties and party leaders in the economic and other important policy areas. This is because of the context that we are in; the fact that we are in the modern times where a lot of activities are conducted based on ones opinion rather than on communal basis. An individual’s decision in casting a vote is greatly influenced by both the situation at hand and also the history of the way of voting. The political campaigns that are conducted by the different parties during the electioneering period also have their stake in influencing how an individual will cast their vote. It is clear that the voting process must have evolved from when people were voting according to class up to the place where voting is purely based on personal judgment and assessment of the party’s policies and the leader. In doing this, will trace the history of voting in Britain. It is going to cover the alignment era of 1940s to 1970s, giving a keen look at how electioneering activities were ran during that period. The essay will also examine the de-alignment era that began from the 1070s onwards, proceeding the alignment era (Denver, 2007 P. 22). The conclusion of the paper will an analysis of the factors that influence voting in the modern day, and specifically look at some recent elections that were conducted in Britain. Alignment era between the 1940s to the 1970s During this period, voting in the UK was greatly influenced by such factors as social class, family, local community, gender, age, ethnicity, region and religion (Persson, 2000 P. 54). The era between 1940- 1970 can be referred to one characterized by party identification and class voting. There were mainly two major parties that dominated the party system at that time. These were the Conservative and the Labor Parties. There patterns of voting was relatively stable as there was minimum switching of political allegiance (Weibull, 1987 P. 52 ). The people were not very much inquisitive and they went by the current wave of their fellow mates in the social class. The stability could have been attributed to the image that the voters attached to the party of their choice rather than the policies which it upheld. The affiliates cared really less about the policies. Party identification was mainly obtained from social class, parental political party adherence, and the nature of local community, the region that one hailed from, ethnicity, religion, gender and age variations. If a family member portrayed a different party affiliation from the rest, they could have automatically be deemed as deviant people who needed serious counseling in order to be re-united with the rest of the family members. The Era of Party identification and Class Voting Social Class was seen as the most important determinant of voting behavior as was illustrated by the trends that the people followed. Ones income was the major determinant of their social class. It was demonstrated by the style of life they lived and the things they would afford to buy. Voting according to social class reached its height in 1950 and 1051 when approximately two thirds of the working class voters voted labor and approximately four fifth of the middle class voted Conservative. This kind of voting originated purely from the class socialization that the different voters had achieved. A great majority from either party were deviant voters as they were voting against their natural class party. As already mentioned above, a third of the working voted for the conservatives (Alverez, 1988). Mackenzie and Silver explained working class Conservatism whereby they distinguished between differential and secular working class conservatives. Differential Conservatives were those who believed that the inequalities of social order were nevertheless essentially justified and that the relatively aristocratic Conservative Party was best suited to govern the country. As they actually said, the government was in their blood. On the other hand, the Secular working class Conservatives consisted of young people, who were affluent and opposed to fundamental Labor policies on the trade unions, the welfare state and the nationalized industries. It was also noted that a fifth of the middle class voters were voting Labor at the height of class voting. This group comprised of the middle class workers who were working in the public sector, who had witnessed the effect of poverty and the suffering of disadvantaged groups. They were very considerate of the problems that the people in the middle class were going through and therefore pushed for change. This era of class and party alliance continued up to the 1970. The era of de-alignment Party de-alignment Since the 1970s, significant changes have been taking place in the electoral process of Britain. The electorate was not stable any more and changes were much faster and more sudden. The domination of Conservatives and the Labor party in the party system came to an end. Many parties emerged from different places of the country and they all attracted membership. People had begun to think liberally and joined different parties according to their choice. During those early stages of de-alignment, the conservatives became stronger, then the liberal and Social Democratic party alliance, and finally the Liberal Democrats (Layman, 2001). At the same time, Scotland and the nationalist parties started being important players. That was the era that marked the end of the single-party government and ushered in the era of coalition governments. Some of the coalitions that were formed are the labor and liberal coalition as well as the conservative –liberal democrat coalition. This trend that has been taking place since the 1970 is the de-alignment. It has continually weakened the previous alignment. The smaller parties have gained more support than they previously used to. Class de-alignment The members of different social classes began to vote in a more liberal manner. The old trend whereby people cast their votes according to their classes in society changed (Prysby, 2008). This marked a new era and the policies of a party and the agenda of the leader became of great influence. The fact that people no longer did many things in a communal way, their voting became independent. It was possible to find members of a family having different preferences for a leader and yet this would not cause any disunity in that family. Contemporary political factors that may determine party choice During these modern times, the electorate has changed from supporting the two major parties into owing allegiance to different political parties. (Hillygus, 2008) For traditionalists, multi party politics can be acknowledged only in the peripheries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. But most of those trends were highly ignored. Otherwise, in the more developed parts of the UK, multi party politics have been embraced and everybody is free to express their opinion. The political parties that previously never used to get any support are now getting a lot of support (Nimmo, 1976). This is because whenever an individual feels that they are not pleased with the policies of a party, they defect to other better parties and if they find none, they are free to form theirs. The other factors that influence party membership is the party leader. It is possible to find that if a political party has a charismatic leader, they attract more membership and allegiance. People look at the top leader and seek to find if they can gain their trust (Page, 1978). This however might be misleading because a leader might be charismatic, yet they do not have desirable policies to meet the voter’s needs. Whenever this happens, the voters end up regretting having a wrong leader until the next general election. The mass media is also a great player when it comes to shaping party membership. Many politicians are taking advantage of the advanced technology in media in these modern times. The television, the radio, internet and the print media are very effective in spreading the policies and practices of a political party. To a large extent, these media are greatly controlled and whatever information one might want to pass across, it is highly sieved to ensure decency. However, there another portion of the media that is not regulated and this may end up being misused and pass the wrong information (Wald, 1987). These include the social networking sites that are vastly spread. The general elections of 2005 Before the elections, a pre-election face to face survey was conducted among all the adult population living in the private households of British. The same was done immediately after the elections. All these were aimed at assessing what was influencing the voters to cast the votes the way did. It was also meant for gauging how they would be feeling after the elections and see whether their expectations were met. One thing that came out clearly in this process was that before the elections, there was an election wave. This tended to carry a great portion of the voting population and had a big impact on which the people chose to elect. It can be likened to a political euphoria that sweeps peoples through beliefs. This however did not make people to assume the policies that a party holds. Whether the euphoria affects the people’s voting, the policies also did matter a lot. The development theory of gender gap During the postwar era, the established orthodoxy in political science was that women in the western countries proved more rightwing than men. Gender differences in party preferences were never as marked as the classic electoral cleavages of class., religion and class. For instance, it was very hard for one to find popular women parties. However, as wisdom and freedom increased, women were liberated and they were able to participate in politics despite the backgrounds that they hailed from Conclusion The voting system has continued to change over time. It began fro the time people voted in groups and based their judgments in the social class, a period which was known as the alignment period. Only two major parties existed at that time. With time, this changed and de-alignment occurred. People no longer based their voting on party or class affiliations. They instead looked at the party policies to see whether they met the desired qualifications. In the present day and age, voting is being defined by a multiplicity of factors. The influence of political leaders, the media, rival party policies among others leaves a voter with a sole responsibility to decide who to elect. References Alverez, R. M. (1988). Information and Elections. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. Denver, D. (2007). Elections and Voters in British. oxford: Oxford University Press. Hillygus, D. S. (2008). The Persuadable Voter. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Layman, G. (2001). he Great Divide: Religion and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics. New York: Columbia University Press. Nimmo, D. a. (1976). Candidates and Their Images. Pacific Palisades: Goodyear. Page, B. (1978). Choices and Echoes in Presidential Elections. Chicago:: University of Chicago Press. Persson, T. G. (2000). Political Economics. Cambridge: MIT Press. Prysby, C. (2008). "Perceptions of Candidate Character Traits and the Presidential Vote in 2004.". New York: Political Science and Politics. Wald, K. D. (1987). Religion and Politics in the United States. New York: St. Martins Press. Weibull, L. A. (1987). Balanced Budget Dstribution as the Oitcome of Political Competition. Public Choice , 52. Read More