Skip to main content
Log in

Routes to party choice: Ideology, economic evaluations and voting at the 1997 British General Election

  • Published:
European Journal of Political Research

Abstract

Most conventional accounts of voting behaviour fit single models to the entire electorate, implicitly assuming that all voters respond to the same sets of influences, and do so in similar ways. However, a growing body of research suggests that this approach may be misleading, and that distinct groups of voters approach politics, and the electoral decision, from different perspectives. The paper takes a disaggregated look at voting in the 1997 British General Election, dividing voters into different groups according totheir formal educational qualifications. Results suggest that different groups of voters respond to different stimuli, depending on their education, and on the party they are voting for.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartle, J. (1997). Political awareness and heterogeneity in models of voting: Some evidence from the recent British election studies, in C. Pattie, D. Denver, J. Fisher& S. Ludlam (eds.), British elections and parties review, Vol. 7, (pp. 1-22). London: Frank Cass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartle, J. (1998). Left-right position matters, but does social class? Causal models of the 1992 British General Election', British Journal of Political Science 28(3): 501–529.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartle, J. (2000). Political awareness, opinion constraint and the stability of ideological positions, Political Studies 48: 467–484.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bishop, G.F. (1976). The effect of education on ideological consistency, Public Opinion Quarterly 40: 337–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Budge, I. (1999). Party policy and ideology: Reversing the 1950s?, in G. Evans& P. Norris (eds.), Critical elections? British parties and voters in long term perspective (pp. 1–21), London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chappell, H.W.& Viega, L.G. (2000). Economics and elections in Western Europe: 1960–1997, Electoral Studies 19: 183–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, H.D., Stewart, M. & Whiteley, P.F. (1999). Emotions, expectations and the dynamics of party support in Britain. Paper presented at the Joint Sessions Workshops of the European Consortium for Political research, Mannheim, Germany, 26–31 March 1999.

  • Converse, P. (1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics, in D. Apter (ed.), Ideology and Discontent (pp. 206–261). New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G., Heath, A.& Lalljee, M. (1996). Measuring left-right and libertarian-authoritarian values in the British electorate, British Journal of Sociology 47, 93–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, G, Curtice, J.& Norris, P. (1998). New Labour, new tactical voting? The causes and consequences of tactical voting in the 1997 General Election, in D. Denver, J. Fisher, P. Cowley & C. Pattie (eds.), British Elections and Parties, Volume 8: The 1997 General Election (pp. 65–79). London: Frank Cass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiorina, M. (1981). Retrospective voting in American national elections, New Haven CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Franklin, M. (1985). The decline of class voting in Britain: Changes in the basis of electoral choice, 1964–1983. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath, A., Evans, G.& Martin, J. (1993). The measurement of core beliefs and values: The development of balanced socialist/laissez faire and libertarian/authoritarian scales, British Journal of Political Science 24: 115–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R.J.& Pattie, C.J. (1998). Inconsistency within consistency: changing attitudes and electoral behaviour in Great Britain, Genetic, Social&General Psychology Monographs 124: 283–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R.J.& Pattie, C.J. (2000). Dimensions of retrospective voting: economic performance, public service standards and Conservative party support at the 1997 British General Election, Party Politics (forthcoming).

  • Johnston, R.J., Pattie, C.J., Dorling, D.F.L., Rossiter, D.J., MacAllister, I.& Tunstall, H. (1997). Spatial variations in voter choice: modelling tactical voting at the 1997 General Election in Great Britain, Geographical and Environmental Modelling 1: 153–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Key, V.O. (1966). The responsible electorate: Rationality in presidential voting 1936–1960, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis-Beck, M.S. (1990). Economics and elections: The major western democracies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lupia, A.& McCubbins, M.D. (1998). The democratic dilemma: Can citizens learn what they need to know, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luskin, R.C. (1987).Measuring political sophistication, American Journal of Political Science 31: 856–899.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pattie, C.J.& Johnston, R.J. (1995). It's not like that round here: region, economic evaluations and voting at the 1992 British General Election, European Journal of Political Research 28: 1–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkin, S.L. (1991). The Reasoning voter: Communication and persuasion in presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, D. (1999). Conservative incompetence, Labour responsibility and the feelgood factor: Why the economy failed to save the Conservatives in 1997, Electoral Studies 18: 251–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarborough, E. (1984). Political Ideology and Voting: An Exploratory Study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sniderman, P.M., Brody, R.A.& Tetlock, P.E. (1991). Reasoning and choice: Explorations in political psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaller, J.R. (1992). The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pattie, C., Johnston, R. Routes to party choice: Ideology, economic evaluations and voting at the 1997 British General Election. European Journal of Political Research 39, 373–389 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011077921719

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011077921719

Keywords

Navigation