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The Incidence of Coloured Populations and Support for the National Front

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Stan Taylor
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Extract

Most explanations of variations in electoral support for the National Front involve some consideration of the importance of resentment and fear of coloured people among whites, the level of which is conditional upon the local incidence of coloured populations. Some writers, notably Harrop and Zimmerman and Whiteley, have suggested that National Front support, in so far as it can be explained by white ‘backlash’, may be considered as directly related to the relative size of the coloured population in different locales. Their argument is that, the higher the proportion of the population which is coloured, the greater the extent that their presence will be resented, and the higher the level of National Front support. Other commentators have advanced a rather different interpretation. Although agreeing that the National Front will do worst in areas with small or non-existent coloured populations, they argue that the party might do better in areas with moderate-sized coloured populations than in those with large ones. The existence of a moderate-sized coloured population, it is held, indicates that the area is ‘vulnerable’ to further migration or immigration, particularly where there are large coloured communities in neighbouring areas, and that whites may express their ‘exaggerated fears of the likely effects of immigrants moving in’ by supporting the National Front. These fears are regarded as being more important in mobilizing National Front support than the actuality of living in an area with a very large coloured population.

Type
Notes and Comments
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 250 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 Harrop, M. and Zimmerman, G., ‘The Anatomy of the National Front’ (Department of Government, University of Essex, mimeo, 1977), p. 3.Google Scholar

2 Whiteley, P., ‘The Decline of Partisan Allegiance in Britain and the National Front Vote’, paper presented to the Third Political Studies Association Workshop on Contemporary Politics, Sheffield, 1978, pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

3 See Husbands, C., ‘The Threat Hypothesis and Racist Voting in England and the United States’ in Phizacklea, A. and Miles, R., eds., Racism and Political Action (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, forthcoming, 1978)Google Scholar and The Economist, 20 08 1977.Google Scholar

4 The Economist, 20 08 1977.Google Scholar

5 This assumption is questionable, as will be seen later, but as long as the proportion of the electorate which was coloured was positive and related to the size of the population which was coloured, the presence of coloured electors would result in an apparent non-linear relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

6 The birthrate is somewhat higher among the coloured population than among the white population, which implies that children under voting age will form a higher proportion of the former than of the latter. Eligible coloured people have been found to be less likely than eligible whites to register. See Participation of Ethnic Minorities in the General Election, October 1974 (London: Community Relations Commission, 1975), p. 13.Google Scholar

7 See Mack, J., ‘A Question of Race?’, New Society, 5 01 1978, pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

8 See Husbands, C., ‘The National Front: A Response to Crisis’, New Society, 15 05 1975, pp. 403–5Google Scholar; Steed, M., ‘Racism and the Electorate’, paper presented to the Third Political Studies Association Workshop on Contemporary British Politics, Sheffield, 1978Google Scholar; and Taylor, S., ‘The National Front: Anatomy of a Political Movement’Google Scholar in Phizacklea, and Miles, , Racism and Political Action.Google Scholar

9 The value of R 2 derived from the equation NFW = a + bC for all seats contested by the National Front in February 1974 was 0·12671; the value of E 2 derived from NFw = a + blogC was 0·23031. If these coefficients are compared with those for only those seats where the National Front faced Liberal opposition it is clear that results of a substantively different magnitude would have been obtained.

10 Blalock, H., Social Statistics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960), pp. 311–17.Google Scholar

11 Examples of this kind of movement are presented in Phizacklea, A. and Miles, R., ‘Working Class Racist Beliefs in the Inner City’Google Scholar, in Phizacklea, and Miles, , Racism and Political Action.Google Scholar

12 In the sense that had data been available for the February election upon all seats contested in October, the relationship between NFw. and C would still have been non-linear.

13 See Humphry, D. and Ward, M., Passports and Politics (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1974), pp. 28–9.Google Scholar

14 Humphry, and Ward, , Passports and Politics, pp. 52–60.Google Scholar

15 In the sense that there is some ‘real’ foundation in the belief that coloured people might move into the community, but the numbers involved and their likely effects upon the community are grossly exaggerated. See Rex, J. and Moore, R., Race, Community and Conflict (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 83.Google Scholar