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Explaining the Relationship Between Class Position and Political Preferences: A Long-Term Panel Analysis of Intra-Generational Class Mobility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2021

Peter Egge Langsæther Open the ORCID record for Peter Egge Langsæther [Opens in a new window] ,
Geoffrey Evans Open the ORCID record for Geoffrey Evans [Opens in a new window]  and
Tom O'Grady Open the ORCID record for Tom O'Grady [Opens in a new window]
Peter Egge Langsæther*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway
Geoffrey Evans
Affiliation:
Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK
Tom O'Grady
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University College London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Past findings on the connection between class position and political preferences are overwhelmingly derived from cross-sectional studies, which provided a limited basis for inferring causality. This study uses long-term panel data on thousands of British respondents to measure the impact of intra-generational class mobility across a range of political identities and preferences. Upward class mobility leads to small increases in economic conservatism, but party choice, class identity and attitudes to non-economic issues do not change. This updating of economic values is much smaller than cross-sectional differences between classes. These results are consistent with the short-run effects of class mobility operating primarily through a limited economic self-interest mechanism. Beliefs that are plausibly unconnected to economics are unaffected. The overall association between class and a range of identities, opinions and preferences is therefore more likely to be caused by early life experiences and longer-term socialization than by the immediate material interests associated with jobs.

Keywords

class mobilityeconomic valuesidentitysocial conservatismparty choiceself-interestpolitical socialization
Type
Letter
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , April 2022 , pp. 958 - 967
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Supplementary material: Link

Langsæther et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/BTZ9UN
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Langsæther et al. supplementary material

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