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Two Types of Middle-Class Labour Voter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Colin S. Rallings
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Extract

The phenomenon of the Labour middle class is much neglected in studies of political behaviour, and its importance is often dismissed without either statistical evidence or theoretical justification. Whilst there has been considerable research into the characteristics of and differences between ‘traditional’ Labour and ‘deferential’ Conservative working-class voters, our knowledge of the other side of the coin of class-party deviancy remains sketchy. The purpose of this Note is to attempt to explain something of this not insubstantial part of the electorate, to show how it differs from the Conservative middle-class electorate, and to argue that one can break down the Labour middle class itself and identify two distinct types of Labour supporter.

Type
Notes and Comments
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , January 1975 , pp. 107 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 Bonham, John, The Middle-Class Vote (London: Faber, 1954).Google Scholar

2 Lockwood, David, The Blackcoated Worker (London: Allen and Unwin, 1958).Google Scholar

3 Bonham, , The Middle-Class Vote, p. 191.Google Scholar

4 Parkin, Frank, Middle-Class Radicalism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1968).Google Scholar

5 For evidence on the socio-economic composition of such pressure-groups, see Richards, Peter G., Parliament and Conscience (London: Faber, 1972)Google Scholar; Hindell, Keith and Simms, Madeleine, Abortion Law Reformed (London: Peter Owen, 1972)Google Scholar; Campbell, Colin B., ‘The Membership Composition of the British Humanist Association’, Sociological Review, XIII (1965), 327–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 The ‘quality press’ is defined as The Times, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Guardian. Papers taken to be Conservative are The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Sketch and Daily Express. Labour papers are Guardian; The Sun and Daily Mirror.

7 Fora full explanation of this idea, see Rose, Richard, ‘Class and Party Divisions: Britain as a Test Case’, Sociology, II (1968), 129–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Basically Rose is concerned to identify four ‘ideal-typical’ working-class characteristics — being a trade union member; living in a Council house; leaving school at the minimum possible age; and being subjectively working-class.

8 It is an unfortunate limitation on our understanding that we have no recall data on the political affiliations of our respondents’ parents.

9 Pulzer, Peter G. J., Political Representation and Elections in Britain (London: Allen and Unwin, 1969), p. 106.Google Scholar

10 Evidence that, after experiencing social mobility, the new ‘objective’ middle class often retain the class and political affiliations of their background can be found inAbramson, Paul, ‘Intergenerational Social Mobility and Partisan Choice’, American Political Science Review, LXVI (1972), 1291–CrossRefGoogle Scholar4; and in the book whose survey data he re-analysed, Butler, David and Stokes, Donald, Political Change in Britain (London: Macmillan, 1969), especially pp. 95–101.Google Scholar