Voting behaviour

Abstract

This chapter moves on from electoral systems to examine why people vote as they do. In the late 1960s a political scientist could observe with considerable justification that in Britain ‘class is the basis of British party politics; all else is embellishment and detail’ (Pulzer, 1967: 98). Thirty years later social class appears to explain much less about variations in political behaviour, and today political scientists talk of ‘class dealignment’ as having taken place. But, as we shall see, there is much disagreement about the extent to which dealignment has occurred. Political scientists have developed various models to help explain the changes that have taken place in voting behaviour. Each model is useful in that it explains some aspect or other of voting, but none explains voting patterns entirely. How far do they help in analysing recent general elections? On the surface, in 1997 and again in 2001, Labour enjoyed landslide victories of historic proportions, but are there other explanations that put Tony Blair’s successes into perspective?