Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:52:32.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Decline of Class Revisited: Class and Party in England, 1964–1979

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Jonathan Kelley ,
Ian McAllister  and
Anthony Mughan
Jonathan Kelley
Affiliation:
The Australian National University
Ian McAllister
Affiliation:
The Australian National University
Anthony Mughan
Affiliation:
The Australian National University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Class has long been the preeminent source of political conflict in industrial society, but its electoral influence has declined in recent years. The sources of the decline are not yet firmly established, and moreover the implications for political parties remain unclear. The decline-of-class hypothesis states that parties on the left will decline as the working class becomes more affluent and adopts middle-class styles of conduct. By contrast, the party-appeals hypothesis suggests that as the electorate becomes more middle class, parties of the left will alter their appeals to encompass the growing middle class and so offset the shrinkage of their traditional working-class constituency. This article applies multivariate anaysis to survey data collected in England between 1964 and 1979 to test four specific hypotheses derived from the two scenarios. The results support the decline-of-class theory's prediction that economic development erodes the working-class bases of left-wing parties, but not its claim that the left-wing party's vote declines proportionately. Rather, the results suggest that parties are apparently able to change their appeals to reduce their losses, as argued by the party-appeals theory, but not to eliminate them. It seems that there are restraints on parties' ability to change their appeals, limitations not envisioned by the party appeals theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 79 , Issue 3 , September 1985 , pp. 719 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, M., & Rose, R. Must Labour lose? Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960.Google Scholar
Abramson, P. R. Social class and political change in western Europe: A cross-national longitudinal analysis. Comparative Political Studies, 1971, 4, 131–155.10.1177/001041407100400201CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alford, R. Party and society. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963.Google Scholar
Alt, J. E. Dealignment and the dynamics of partisanship in Britain. In Beck, P., Dalton, R., & Flanagan, S. (Eds.), Electoral change in advanced industrial societies. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Alt, J. E., Crewe, I., & Sarlvik, B. Angels in plastic: The liberal surge in 1974. Political Studies, 1977, 25, 343–368.10.1111/j.1467-9248.1977.tb01285.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alwin, D. F., & Hauser, R. M. The decomposition of effects in path analysis. American Sociological Review, 1975, 40, 37–47.10.2307/2094445CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bain, G. S. The growth of white collar unionism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Bell, D. The end of ideology. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Berry, F. Housing: The great British failure. London: Charles Knight, 1974.Google Scholar
Blau, P. M., & Duncan, O. D. The American occupational structure. New York: Wiley, 1967.Google Scholar
Budge, I. Strategies, issues and votes: British general elections, 1950-79. Comparative Political Studies, 1982, 15, 171–196.10.1177/0010414082015002003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, D., & Stokes, D. Political change in Britain. London: Macmillan, 1974.10.1007/978-1-349-02048-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, B. E. Dynamic and static components of political support in Britain. American Journal of Political Science, 1978, 22, 849–866.10.2307/2110594CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crewe, I. Party identification theory and political change in Britain. In Budge, I., Crewe, I., & Fairlie, D. (Eds.), Party identification and beyond. London: Wiley, 1976.Google Scholar
Crewe, I., & Sarlvik, B. Popular attitudes and electoral strategy. In Layton-Henry, Z. (Ed.), Conservative party politics. London: Macmillan, 1980.Google Scholar
Crewe, I., Sarlvik, B., & Alt, J. Partisan dealignment in Britain, 1964-74. British Journal of Political Science, 1977, 7, 129–140.10.1017/S0007123400000922CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, A. An economic theory of democracy. New York: Harper & Row, 1957.Google Scholar
Drucker, H. (Ed.). Multi-party Britain. London: Macmillan, 1979.10.1007/978-1-349-16212-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, O. D. Inheritance of poverty or inheritance of race? In Moynihan, D. P. (Ed.), On understanding poverty. New York: Basic Books, 1968.Google Scholar
Dunleavy, P. The urban basis of political alignment: Social class, domestic property ownership and state intervention in consumption processes. British Journal of Political Science, 1979, 9, 409–443.10.1017/S0007123400001915CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, M., & Mughan, A. The decline of class voting in Britain. American Political Science Review, 1978, 72, 523–534.10.2307/1954108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, M. Demographic and political components in the decline of British class voting, 1964-1979. Electoral Studies, 1982, 1, 195–220.10.1016/0261-3794(82)90003-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, M. W. Log-linear techniques and the regression analysis of dummy dependent variables. Sociological Methods and Research, 1977, 6, 103–122.10.1177/004912417700600105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. H. et al. The affluent worker in the class structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. H. et al. The affluent worker: Political attitudes and behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Goldthorpe, J. H. et al. Social mobility and class structure in Britain. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Halsey, A. H. (Ed.). Trends in British society since 1900. London: Macmillan, 1972.10.1007/978-1-349-00778-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanushek, E. A., & Jackson, J. E. Statistical methods for social scientists. New York: Academic Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Hauser, R. M. et al. Temporal change in occupational mobility: Evidence for men in the United States. American Sociological Review, 1975, 40, 279–297.10.2307/2094459CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazelrigg, L. E., & Gamier, M. L. Occupational mobility in industrial societies: A comparative analysis of differential access to occupational ranks in seventeen countries. American Sociological Review, 1976, 41, 498–511.10.2307/2094256CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hertel, B. R. Minimising error variance introduced by missing data routines in survey analysis. Sociological Methods and Research, 1976, 4, 169–184.10.1177/004912417600400404CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Himmelweit, H., et al. How voters decide. New York: Academic Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Hope, K. Trends in the openness of British society in the present century. In Treiman, D. J. & Robinson, R. V. (Eds.), Research in social stratification and mobility. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI, 1981.Google Scholar
Howell, D. British social democracy. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Jennings, M. K., & Niemi, R. The persistence of political orientations: An over-time analysis of two generations. British Journal of Political Science, 1978, 8, 333–363.10.1017/S000712340000140XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kavanagh, D. Still the workers' party? Changing social trends in elite recruitment and electoral support. In Kavanagh, D. (Ed.). The politics of the Labour party. London: Allen & Unwin, 1982.Google Scholar
Kelley, J., & McAllister, I. Class and party in Australia, with British and United States comparisons. British Journal of Sociology (in press).Google Scholar
Kmenta, J. Elements of econometrics. New York: Macmillan, 1971.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. The working class in welfare capitalism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.Google Scholar
LaPalombara, J., & Weiner, M. (Eds.). Political parties and political development. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966.10.1515/9781400875337CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemieux, P. H. Political issues and liberal support in the February 1974 British general election. Political Studies, 1977, 25, 323–342.10.1111/j.1467-9248.1977.tb01284.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, S. M. The changing class structure and contemporary European politics. Daedalus, 1964, 93, 271–303.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M. Whatever happened to the proletariat? An historic mission unfulfilled. Encounter, 1981, 56, 18–34.Google Scholar
Lipset, S. M., & Rokkan, S. (Eds.), Party systems and voter alignments. New York: Free Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Lockwood, D. The “new working class.” European Journal of Sociology, 1960, 1, 248–259.10.1017/S0003975600000163CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, I. Housing tenure and party choice in Australia, Britain and the United States. British Journal of Political Science, 1984, 14, 509–522.10.1017/S0007123400003744CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, I., & Mughan, A. Attitudes, issues and Labour party decline in England, 1974-79. Comparative Political Studies (in press).Google Scholar
McAllister, I., & Rose, R. The nationwide competition for votes: The 1983 British general election. London: Frances Pinter, 1984.Google Scholar
McKenzie, R. T., & Silver, A. Angels in marble. London: Heinemann, 1968.Google Scholar
McRoberts, H. A., & Selbee, K. Trends in occupational mobility in Canada and the United States: A comparison. American Sociological Review, 1981, 41, 406–421.10.2307/2095261CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, W. L. Social class and party choice in England: A new analysis. British Journal of Political Science, 1978, 8, 257–284.10.1017/S000712340000137XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minkin, L. The Labour party conference. London: Allen Lane, 1978.Google Scholar
Myers, F. E. Social class and political change in western industrial systems. Comparative Politics, 1970, 2, 389–412.10.2307/421309CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, N., Verba, S., and Petrocik, J. R. The changing American voter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Nordlinger, E. The working class Tories. London: McGibbon & Kee, 1967.10.1525/9780520327788CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomper, G. From confusion to clarity: Issues and American voters, 1956-1968. American Political Science Review, 1972, 66, 415–428.10.2307/1957786CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pulzer, P. Political representation and elections in Britain. London: Allen & Unwin, 1967.Google Scholar
Railings, C. Two types of middle class Labour voter? British Journal of Political Science, 1975, 5, 107–112.10.1017/S0007123400008061CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, D. Class and the British electorate. Oxford: Blackwell, 1984.Google Scholar
Robinson, R. V., & Kelley, J. Class as conceived by Marx and Dahrendorf: Effects on income inequality and politics in the United States and Britain. American Sociological Review, 1979, 44, 38–57.10.2307/2094817CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogowski, R. Social class and partisanship in European electorates: A re-assessment. World Politics, 1980, 33, 639–649.10.2307/2010138CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, R. Britain: From simple abstractions to complex realities. In Rose, R. (Ed.), Electoral behavior. New York: Free Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Rose, R. Class does not equal party: The decline of a model of British voting. Glasgow: University of Strathclyde Studies in Public Policy No. 74, 1980.Google ScholarPubMed
Rose, R. From simple determinism to interactive models of voting: Britain as an example. Comparative Political Studies, 1982, 15, 145–169.10.1177/0010414082015002002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, R., & McAllister, I. United Kingdom facts. London: Macmillan, 1982.10.1007/978-1-349-04204-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Runciman, W. G. Embourgeoisement, self-rated class and party preference. Sociological Review, 1984, 12, 137–154.10.1111/j.1467-954X.1964.tb01250.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarlvik, B., & Crewe, I. Decade of dealignment: The Conservative victory of 1979 and electoral trends in the 1970s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Sartori, O. From the sociology of politics to political sociology. In Lipset, S. M. (Ed.), Politics and the social sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Sartori, G. Parties and party systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Studlar, D. T. Policy voting in Britain: The colored immigration issue in the 1964, 1966 and 1970 general elections. American Political Science Review, 1973, 72, 46–64.10.2307/1953598CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Studlar, D. T., & Welch, S. Mass attitudes on political issues in Britain. Comparative Political Studies, 1981, 14, 327–356.10.1177/001041408101400303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wald, K. D. Crosses on the ballot. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.10.1515/9781400857319CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.