Social De-alignment in UK - Essay Example

The present work will be devoted to the discussion of the de-alignment and its social constituent as one of the major factors influencing the voters' behaviour. It is necessary to look at class alignment and de-alignment from different viewpoints, applying the main theories of social cleavage and the role of de-alignment in forming the voting preferences of the citizens. Social cleavage and social de-alignment in voting behaviour It has become popular through the recent years to view the voting patterns in the UK as less dependent on social attitudes and positions, rather than dependent on political factors. However, it is still under argument, whether social issues still play major role in defining voters' behaviours, as the present-day society has become more polarized. The electorate may be described as well-educated and informed mass of people, and it is often that its rational choice is based on the party's position, leadership, strategy and policy, not taking into account to which class the exact part of electorate belongs. This is the basis of the so called 'supermarket' model of voting, when the rational choice is based on the perceptions, which party will improve the life of the society while in Government. Thus the theory becomes active, when the leadership and personality of the candidate become increasingly significant for voters, and the political issues leave for the background. However, such theories don't take into account the influence, which the media may make on the personality of each leader, and this influence may be both positive and negative, thus causing the electorate to make wrong choice. This work is to be concentrated on the social theories in voters' behaviour which take into account age, gender and class to which the voters belong, and assuming that these factors dictate the way the voter makes his choice. De-alignment 'Class is undoubtedly a significant factor when considering voting behaviour; traditionally two thirds of all voters chose their 'natural' class party, the working class favoring Labour and the middle class Conservative. However, since the1970s class de-alignment has begun, and the proportions of classes voting for particular parties have become more even, caused by embourgeoisement and the consequent decrease of in size of the working class'. (Curtice, 2002) This theory may be easily linked to the suggestion, that the voter's choice is becoming more tied to the place of his residence (the theories of voters' behaviour and the influence of neighbourhood will be discussed in this work), however, it is easily explained by the fact that the working class mainly occupies the northern part of the country, while the southern part belongs to the middle class. Simultaneously, it is interesting to note, that during the election campaign of the year 2001 the Conservatives lost most of their southern votes, which says there are some other factors except for class, which influence voters' choice. Another important social factor in defining voting preferences is gender. However, the proofs, which support this theory, are very inaccurate, as they don't account the gender equilibrium in the workforce and the attempts of different parties to concentrate their campaigns on childcare and health issues. It may be surprising not to note the influential role of the social factors in electorate behaviour, as Britain cannot be described as less class aligned. People still reflect their class preferences in their voting, though less attention has been paid to these factors, while they are still important and should be taken into account. To realize the importance of the social re-alignment and de-alignment in relation to the voting behaviours, it is necessary to provide the reliable argument as for the increasing social polarization in the society. According to Dorling (2006), 'housing wealth per child rose 20 times more in the best-off tenth as compared to worse-off tenth of areas in Britain 1993-2003; the majority of extra higher education places have gone to children from already advantaged areas and so the participation gap between social groups has been increasing; work rich and work poor geographical divisions are growing by area and by income to at least mid 2005'. In the view of these three arguments, is it still possible to speak that social factors are now less important than political ones in defining voting preferences Class or social de-alignment is the process, when the social background of each individual becomes less predictive of his electoral choice. Since the beginning of the 1970s there has been noticed the weakening class alignment. The classes started to be less polarized in identifying themselves. The process of class de-alignment has been reflected by different authors starting from the years 1945 till present time. The main tendency noticed through this period has been 'the introduction of television, the increasing similarity of the social composition of the Conservative and Labour parliamentary parties and increasing affluence'. (Clark & Seymour, 1993) It has been noted that people were becoming less predictive of their voting preferences and were more concentrated on their daily issues, than on the definition of their class and their job title. In the period of 1980s people had lower income level, especially in the public sector of economy, thus there have been suggested new alignments: some analysts have proposed that new alignments had emerged and party identification had been replaced by other sources of motivation with an opening up a new public/private sector cleavage. It has been until 1990, that there were no stronger evidences of the new cleavage. After the year 1987 the North of Great Britain was becoming more pro-Labour, and the South was becoming pro-Conservative, and what is the most important here, that these differences can in no way be accounted for social discrepancies between these two parts of the country. After 1987 the biggest divider of the electorate was the regional location, rather than trade union membership or social structure of the society. However, even this factor has been characterized by being weakened recently. It is still noticeable, that despite the talks about the social de-alignment and its instability in time, it has always been determining and has always been present among the major factors defining the voting preferences, and it can even be said that the instabilities in social de-alignment were not statistically significant. Re-alignment The problem of speaking about political and social de-alignment is becoming more aggravated with the confusion of terms - when the definition of class is made parallel with the definition of the job title the whole description of the de-alignment process becomes confusing and at times wrong. What should be noted in both de-alignment and re-alignment at present time is that despite the growing polarization in wealth and social status the main process of re-alignment is seen through geographic factors, thus it is necessary to pay closer attention to the theories of neighbourhood - people with common class interests are now also concentrated geographically. Simultaneously the present situation with re-alignment should be characterized in the following way: 'Who you are, and what you are - class - matters more today than it did a half century ago in Britain. Voting, as with all else that matters - especially that which matters most - has aligned more strongly to class as class has become even more important; but to see that you have to first recognize class and class interest for what it really is, and not through the titles and ranks given to people's jobs'. (Johnston et al, 2004) The most interesting fact, when speaking about the process of alignment, is that the geography in it mattered, when the nation had the least options, while people in Britain clearly understood their position, knew their preferences even in the conditions of such uncertain options. In the process of re-alignment people vote for the interests of their class, and look for protecting their interests as a class. Social cleavage and electorate behaviours In attempt to predict the electoral behaviour of different classes, the following cleavages may be taken into account as having existed for several decades throughout Europe: the center-periphery cleavage; the workers-owners cleavage; Catholics-protestants cleavage, etc. These cleavages represent different sides of the social structure of the society and thus take active part in the social and political de-alignment in relation to the electoral behaviours. The process noted earlier (mid-1970s) has been the start of the de-alignment process, as this was the moment, when minor parties in Great Britain started to appear and thus it led the scientists and the observers to the opinion, that the modernization, which took place in the society, was eroding the traditional societal identities, and it was clear that 'class and religion no longer anchored voters to the parties, and this promised to have significant consequences for patterns of growing volatility in electoral behaviour and in party competition, and the growing influence of party strategy and media coverage in determining the outcome of the election campaigns'. (Shelter, 2005) To critically evaluate the social de-alignment in Great Britain in relation to the voting behaviours and to see the each side of it, this process should be divided into separate factors, thus the work will be designed as a discussion of the following aspects: socioeconomic status; household income; occupational class; trade union membership; education. Socioeconomic status It has been noted by several professional politicians and observers, that the decline in socioeconomic status cleavage politics took place not only in Britain, but in the whole Europe. The deepest analysis performed in the area of social de-alignment in the post-war Europe suggested that in the countries where socioeconomic linkages used to be strong, some kind of de-alignment had occurred. Even the observers, who were sure that in the middle of 1980s the notion of class still mattered in Great Britain, have recently admitted that even the UK is now characterized by some kind of social de-alignment. (Inglehart, 1986) Household income 'The cleavage by socioeconomic status is commonly understood to represent the basic economic and material inequalities in any society'. (Shelter, 2005) Household income is one of the most important indicators in socioeconomic status and the definition of voting behaviours; however, it has been defined that Britain is characterized by a very significant gap between the rich and the poor, while the most affluent area is the most predictive in their voting preferences. Thus, the de-alignment is evident based on the household income, as the lower the income, the less predictive voting behaviour is. Occupational class In defining the role of occupational class for predicting the voting behaviours, occupations have been divided into five main categories: senior management, technicians and similar professionals, white-collar, skilled manual and unskilled manual. This scale represented different conditions of work, of payment and different qualifications and skills, thus it appeared to be the most optimal scale to find out the level of de-alignment based on the above-mentioned indices. Through the process of studying these indices it has been found, not significant de-alignment took place and the occupational class is still very reliable in predicting the voting behaviours. It is necessary to be very cautious in making the generalized conclusions with the use of this pattern, as this factor becomes extremely predictive only if combined with the factors of trade union membership and household income. (Evans, 1999) Trade union membership One more proxy measure for defining the extent of social de-alignment in the UK is the trade union membership as a part of general social status. However, with the weakening role of trade unions in Great Britain over the recent years, it should be noted that the connection of the trade union membership and the occupational class is also weakened. However, this factor may also be used to predict the voting behaviour, and there are several reasons for that. First of all, trade unions are closely connected to socialist democratic parties and may become a decisive factor in attracting and determining the voting preferences. Trade unions have rich mobilizing capacity as well as trade union membership may be supposed to be the expression of the class consciousness, though in the UK the process of social de-alignment in relation to trade unions membership can be clearly seen through the decreasing role of trade unions among the nation. (Dalton & Becks, 1984) Education Education is the last factor, which is taken here into account as being closely connected with the socioeconomic status. Education here shows the opportunities of people for getting a good job and thus providing themselves with enough income, which in its turn will define their voting behaviour. However, education simultaneously appears to be one of the weakest factors in predicting the voting preferences. The process of de-alignment is not clearly seen through the educational factor across the nation. Neighbourhood effect The concept of neighbourhood in describing and discussing the questions of social and political de-alignment within the British voting patterns has to the great extent been discarded, however, the reason for such negligence has lied in absence of the data necessary for testing the appropriate spatial scales. The neighbourhood theories represent the new vision on the class and voting, as well as the de-alignment and voting. The main idea of the theory, to be expressed in simple words is 'people, who talk together, vote together'. (McAllister, 2001) Despite the fact, that neighbourhood influence continues to appear as one of the major factors of defining the voting patterns across Britain, it has hardly ever been put to profound testing. The recent research has shown that 'the hypothesis that people are influenced in their decision-making and behavioural patterns by their neighbors, with inter-personal conversation being the main means of transmitting such influence'. (McAllister, 2001) Several studies, related to UK voting patterns and the questions of de-alignment, have provided strong evidences as for the neighboring effects, thus suggesting, that the voting behaviours don't depend so much on the class, rather on the geographical place people live at. However, much of the research, which has been already completed, had used poor quality data, especially what concerns the size of the neighbourhood under investigation. Despite the fact, that the neighboring effect on voting behaviours is now accepted unconditionally as a fact, there are still several problems connected with these studies, which put them on doubt. The research, carried out by Miller, though having limited application, have proved that the lower the neighbourhood status, the higher the probability of the person voting for labour party, no matter to what social class this person belongs, which is one of the brightest signs of the social de-alignment in relation to voting behaviours. This is the very neighbourhood effect, which is identified by Miller as 'conversion through conversation'. (Books & Prysby, 1991) Irrespective of the class, people vote in the similar way if they live next to each other. This neighbourhood concept has become one of the main theories in discussing and analyzing the social de-alignment in the UK. However, this concept can be easily explained by the two arguments, one of which claims that neighbourhood effect may be caused by the choice of the middle class British of their residence place, on the other hand, this effect may be explained by the choice of the election campaign patterns depending on the geographical and local conditions. The neighbourhood effect in explaining the social de-alignment in the UK has become rather popular recently, but it should be noted, that having looked through the literary sources related to the topic, especially accounting for the influence of mass media on certain neighbourhoods, the main disadvantage of this theory has been formed: the work which has been done in this field often lacks empirical investigation and the links between the mass media, the neighbourhood effects and the de-alignment are often simply assumed. However, there are still strong evidences that depending on the area status, the ratio of labour-conservative varies no matter to which class this area belongs. Thus, we have two controversial opinions as for the existence of social de-alignment in the UK and its possible influence on the voting behaviours in the country. As Dalton & Becks (1984) writes, 'in developing and industrialized countries traditional social identities of class and religion provide voters with strong cues influencing voting behaviour and party loyalties. In postindustrial societies, modernization theories suggest that rising levels of education, greater cognitive skills, the erosion of traditional communities and richer information resources from the mass media have reduced voter's reliance upon traditional social identities, increasingly replacing the politics of loyalties with the politics of choice.' Though class and religion are now supposed to have less influence in many established democracies, even in postindustrial countries they keep having strong impact on voting choices. No matter how many de-alignment theories suggest, that class bonds, which anchored the certain class groups to certain parties have weakened, it does not mean that they are no more relevant to the voters' choices. On the base of the evidence related to the de-alignment theories, it may be concluded, that the balance leans towards incentive-based accounts of social de-alignment, rather than cultural ones. It is important to remember, that no presidential elections have been subjected to the investigation connected with social de-alignment, while these types of elections could be crucial in defining the extent of social de-alignment in the UK, as during such campaigns voters usually pay attention to the candidate's personality rather than express their class attitudes. In order to make the correct conclusions as for the level of social de-alignment in the UK, there should be performed further studies and comparisons with other European countries. There is the suggestion made in several incentive-based theories, that electoral systems themselves create social cleavages in the society (Evans, 1999), however it can be argued, whether these electoral systems really create them or merely create incentives for social de-alignment in the society. There is no all-catching strategy for any political campaign, and if there are any, they often increase the extent of social de-alignment in the society. With Britain being a highly developed post-industrial country, the notion of class has become less important in determining the voting behaviours; but there still exists a serious social cleavage in the society caused by the growing discrepancies in wealth, and thus in education, job titles and life opportunities. The two opposed models - the 'supermarket' model and the 'social structures' model in explaining voting behaviours both show their irrelevance in the present-day society, as the class de-alignment today is not yet so clearly seen, however it already causes the unexpected changed in voting preferences, though there are still no strong arguments as for the reasons and the motifs of such changes. The 'supermarket' model is more appropriate to the modern British electorate - it describes it as a well balanced subject, who decides which party to support based on the party's policies, leadership and competences, which is opposed to the class loyalties and class determinants of the voting behaviours. This theory is based on the suggestion that voters rely on analysis of the party's positions and other salient issues, which make rational choice of voting for this or that party, which they usually identify with this or another issue. The main evidence proving this theory is the election campaign of 2001 in the UK, when each of the two leading parties was associated with one particular issue, though it is of course illogical to associate the voting behaviours with only one issue. To make a rational decision there should be several issues taken into account. In rational choice model the perception of the party competence is a significant factor, which means that the electorate makes attempts to define what actions will be undertaken by the chosen party to improve the living standards of the electorate when it is in government. The process of social de-alignment is clearly seen through the recent popularization of the personalities and leadership features of the politicians, in their private lives, while politics is becoming less determining in voting preferences of the British people. However, despite the fact that supermarket model appears one of the most profound in proving the phenomenon of social de-alignment, it does not account the media influence, however, it may be stated with certainty that social de-alignment in defining voting behaviours is becoming one of the major factors in electorate choice. Conclusion The present time Britain is characterized by the greater influence of the political patterns and the more active participation of supermarket model of electorate behaviour, than it has been in the war and postwar time, when social factors and class played major role in defining voting preferences. This fact is proven by the evidence, found through the statistics which display positive correlations between the perception of the party competence between the electorate representatives, their opinions on salient issues and their evaluation of the leadership and personalities of politics. However, the social theories are still popular in explaining the way voters behave at time the election campaigns are held; they are out of date and are often controversial, and are applied to only several social notions as gender and race. 'However, political issues are predominant in this; the social structures model exists merely because the same political issues affect the same social groups.' (McAllister, 2001) A number of studies in the area of voting behaviours have produced strong evidence that similar people vote in a different way not according to their class, but to the geographical location of their residence place. It has been proved that bespoke and individual neighbourhood characteristics display the similarity of the voting behaviours depending on the local milieux, that is, electorate representatives who are living in the same neighbourhood are much more likely to vote in the similar way. This is one of the main signs of the fact that class does not play s decisive role in voting behaviours anymore. Voters rely on their personal choices, becoming more rational and looking into the future of this or that party or candidate. This tendency is clearly observed through all European democracies and it can be predicted, that this process will aggravate with time, making politicians build their election campaigns not on class preferences, but rather on the rational expectations which their voters might have. References Books, JW & Prysby, CL 1991, Political behaviour and the local context. New York, Praeger. Butler, D & Stokes, D 1974, Political change in Britain. London, McMillan. Clark, TN & Seymour, ML 1993, 'The declining political significance of class'. International Sociology, no. 6, pp. 397-410 Curtice, J 2002, 'Survey research and electoral change in Britain'. CREST Working paper number 96. 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