Voting Behaviour

Question 1

What is voting by rational choice?

Answer 1

Voters making a choice after making a rational analysis of the parties position on a range of issues and policies.

Question 2

What are Salient issues?

Answer 2

Issues most likely to effect people’s vote.
e.g
2005 election the Liberal Democrat’s gained due to Labours stance on the Iraq War

Question 3

Why does party de-alignment affect voting significantly?

Answer 3

More people are likely to vote on issues, which affects party policy’s

Question 4

What is the valence model?

Answer 4

How competent you think the the party/ leader is. (how well they will deal with the economy)

Question 5

Examples of the people who won/ lost on competence/ economy

Answer 5

• Corbyn wasn’t thought to be competent , especially with the economy
• Tony Blair , more competent on economy than past labour leaders.
  Education Education Education

Question 6

What are floating voters?

Answer 6

voters that vote differently depending on the election

Question 7

define tactical voting

Answer 7

voting for a party to stop another party winning

Question 8

define protest voting

Answer 8

voting for a party different to the one you align with to try and send a message of displeasure to that party

Question 9

How important is leadership and personality to an election?

Answer 9

According to MORI 2010 was the first election in which leader images were as important as their policys

Question 10

Does region have a big impact on the electorate ?

Answer 10

There is North and South divide
Scotland - left leaning
Wales- left leaning

Red wall crashed in 2019
De-industrialisation

Question 11

Why is media influential in voting behaviour?

Answer 11

• with an increasingly volatile electorate, voters are more open to persuasion
• Newspapers may have a long-term ‘drip-by-drip’ impact on the electorate with people being gradually influenced by what they read.
• The press could have a short term impact. Kinnock 1992
• social media has become very political.

Question 12

How can it be argued the media is not influential towards voting behaviour?

Answer 12

• Not everyone realises the bias of the newspapers they read. 1992 The Sun
• ‘minimum effects theory’ the press merely reinforces peoples views.
• Broadcasts on TV are under legal obligation to be neutral. e.g Nick Clegg performed very well according to the live TV debates in 2010 but this did not translate to votes for the Liberal Democrats.

Question 13

Why has class dealignment occurred ?

Answer 13

• De-industrialisation of Britain leading to smaller working class and less trade unionism.
• people are more upwardly mobile
• production and consumption cleavages have replaced class divisions to some extent.

Question 14

Give a statistic to argue that young people are more likely to vote Labour

Answer 14

1997 Labour won 58% of the 18-29 age group

Question 15

Why does the gender gap seem to have reversed?

Answer 15

Labour party often focuses on childcare
More women working than in 1997, and there now being fewer trade unionists

Question 16

Does ethnicity effect voting behaviour?

Answer 16

Yes
studies show that the majority BME people vote Labour.
In 2015 65% of BME voters voted Labour and 23% voted conservative

Question 17

Why do Labour attract votes of immigrants and their descendants ?

Answer 17

• a high proportion of black and asian voters are working class
  -Labour is usually seen as more liberal on matters like race and immigration
• the concentration of black and asian people in certain areas means that their vote is very significant in some constituencies- these are often Labour strongholds

Question 18

Explains Balsons Three Wales Model to explain Party loyalty

Answer 18

• North West = first language welsh speakers, Plaid Cymru do well
• South Wales valleys = highest % of people born in wales, Labour stronghold
• South-east Wales and the border = highest % born outside Wales and highest % of middle class, Conservatives and LibDems do better than in other areas

Question 19

Explain some of the theories about why partisan de-alignment took place

Answer 19

• Two-party system came under attack from other parties like LibDem and UKIP
• Class-dealignment
• The generation effect, electorate changes from one election to the next

Question 20

Arguments why election campaigns affect voting behaviour

Answer 20

• Politicians and party workers exert massive effort and millions of pounds in fighting election campaigns
• A de-aligned and volatile electorate is open to persuasion during the election campaign
  e.g 1992 Labour lost the election they had been leading in the polls in

Question 21

Arguments why election campaigns don’t affect voting behaviour

Answer 21

• core supporters will remain loyal to their party regardless of the campaign
• In 2005 the ratings of the 2 main parties barely shifted during the campaign