INTER-GENERATION MOBILITY AND VOTING.

Since 1950, political party loyalties have been relatively stable in Great Britain. The Conservative Party slowly gained voters during the 1950s, largely at Labour Party's expense. The main reason for this stability in voting behavior is that political loyalties are related to established class diff...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 133 - 140
Autor principal: Stacey, Barrie
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Spring66
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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Sumario:Since 1950, political party loyalties have been relatively stable in Great Britain. The Conservative Party slowly gained voters during the 1950s, largely at Labour Party's expense. The main reason for this stability in voting behavior is that political loyalties are related to established class differences. However, there has been a good deal of discussion about the influence on political attitudes and voting of various postwar developments, among them a changing occupational structure and a substantial rate of mobility. In order to obtain some idea of the more important factors operating to produce these changes, the article presents an exploratory study using the long, qualitative interview and the group interview. On the basis of the material gathered from the interviews, an explanation of the influence of inter-generation mobility on voting is tentatively offered. It is seen that upward mobility brings an improvement in living standards and often appears to bring a closer identification with, or greater respect for, people in the upper class. The Conservatives are known to support the hierarchy of birth and wealth, Labourites are known to support the reduction of inequalities and the claims of the poorer sections of the community and the Conservative Party is associated with the upper class, the Labour Party with the working class.