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Policy Representation, Social Representation and Class Voting in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2013

Oliver Heath
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Abstract

Why does the strength of class voting vary over time? Recent research has emphasized factors related to the structure of political choice at the party level. This article examines different aspects of this choice, and investigates whether voters are more likely to respond to the social or policy cues that parties send voters. The results from the British context suggest that the former are more important than the latter. The central implication of this finding is that social representation matters, and that the social background of political representatives influences how voters relate to political parties.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 173 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

Department of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London (email: Oliver.Heath@rhul.ac.uk). I would like to thank Heinrich Best, Rosie Campbell, Byron Criddle, Geoffrey Evans, Stefan Jahr, Pippa Norris, the editor and the reviewers for their help, comments and constructive feedback. Online appendices are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123413000318.

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