Making Sense of Middle-Class Politics: A Secondary Analysis of the 1987 British General Election Survey

Savage, Mike

doi:10.1111/j.1467-954x.1991.tb02968.x

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…There is also a large difference between occupational groupings in nationalized industries (who far more support the Conservatives) and occupational groupings in the ‘real’ public sector. Savage concludes that ‘the crucial structural factor ensuring middle‐class political fragmentation lies in the different relationship of middle‐class groups towards the state’ (Dunleavy and Husbands 1985; Savage 1991: 48). Moreover, Güveli, Need and De Graaf (2003) found that the political orientation of the social and cultural specialists has become more crystallized from 1970 onwards.…”

Section: The New Middle Class and Political Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sources of political orientations in post‐industrial society: social class and education revisited

Werfhorst

Graaf

2004

British Journal of Sociology

116

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This paper studies the impact of social class and education on political orientation. We distinguish the 'old' middle class from a new class of social/cultural specialists. However, the difference in their political orientation may especially be related to the level and field of education; the new middle class is more highly educated and often in fields of study that extensively address social competencies, characteristics independently affecting political outcomes. Analyses on Dutch data showed that education is more important in the prediction of 'cultural' liberal issues than social class. Economically-oriented issues are more strongly affected by social class. This means that interests of the new middle class are served by liberal standpoints relating to a strong government and income redistribution policies, but not relating to cultural issues.

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Section: The New Middle Class and Political Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sources of political orientations in post‐industrial society: social class and education revisited

Werfhorst

Graaf

2004

British Journal of Sociology

116

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“…42 According to Savage, the former, whose position is secured through the possession of cultural assets, are dependent on the role of the state in the regulation of such assets, while the latter, possessors of organizational assets, are not (though they may benefit from state provision of education in fostering their children's social mobility). 43 To a substantial extent, as the analysis in Savage et al indicates, the professional/managerial division is coterminous with that between public and private sector. 44 When employment sector is controlled for, the professional/managerial split largely disappears for those in the private sector (where professionals show a high level of Conservative support comparable to that of managers) and for those in public employment (where, conversely, managers exhibit a lower level of Conservative support similar to that of professionals).…”

Section: Non-class Production and Consumption Cleavagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Class, the Stratification Order and Party Identification

Prandy

2000

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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The debate over class dealignment is in part a debate about the meaning of class, which cannot be separated from the issue of the relationship between class and voting. Neither the simplified two-class model that has often been used nor the more sophisticated Goldthorpe class schema are adequate either at the conceptual or the empirical level. Both fail to deal coherently with the intermediate positions in the class structure. The argument that 'social class' is of continuing significance for the analysis of voting behaviour and of party identification is correct, but only if the nature of the stratification order is properly understood. The Cambridge Scale, a measure of general hierarchical, material and social advantage, based on patterns of social interaction, is shown to be comparable to the Goldthorpe schema in terms of statistical prediction. It is argued that it is preferable in the sense that it most clearly captures the single most important aspect of 'class', which is hierarchical position.The debate over 'class dealignment' has raised two related, but not always clearly separated issues: the nature of 'class' and the link between class and voting behaviour. 1 While the political aspects of class, following the work of Marx and Weber, have always been of considerable importance, the concept now has much wider ramifications -from social mobility to health inequalities. To some extent, this may explain the different positions taken by the protagonists, with one side stressing social continuity alongside political changes, the other arguing that both have changed. The 'sociological' camp see little evidence that classes have 'changed in their sociological character -in their social cohesion or ideological distinctiveness' 2 and conclude that 'political explanations … are in many ways more plausible than those which focus on

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“…Furthermore, Goldthorpe does not mention approximately when this consolidation of the service class will occur. Studies show that there continue to be large differences in political orientation within the service class (Brint, 1984;Kriesi, 1989;Savage, 1991;Hout et al, 1995;Brooks and Manza, 1997;De Graaf and Steijn, 1997), so it is obvious that the consolidation process of the service class is not yet finished.…”

Section: Acta Sociologica 50(2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Rise of `New' Social Classes within the Service Class in The Netherlands

2007

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abstract:The employment structure of The Netherlands and other advanced countries is evolving from industrial to postindustrial. Yet existing social class schemata, like the well-known Erikson, Goldthorpe and Portocarero (EGP) class schema, were constructed for an industrial employment structure. In this study, we adjust the EGP class schema to account for this transformation by using new class theories. We distinguish a 'new' class of social and cultural specialists and an 'old' class of technocrats with both a higher and a lower version in the service class. Our research question concerns the extent to which the adjusted EGP class schema is a better predictor of people's political orientation than the standard EGP class schema. We assume that the 'new' classes differ in their political orientation from the 'old' classes. We also assume that, during their formation, the 'new' classes become increasingly effective in explaining differences in people's political orientation. Experts' knowledge is employed to classify the occupations. In addition, we use the data of 34,856 respondents gathered between 1970 and 2003 in The Netherlands. The adjusted EGP class schema explains people's political orientation substantially better than the standard EGP class schema; the 'new' classes vote significantly more for leftist parties and differ substantially in their political orientation from the 'old' classes. Furthermore, our results show that the political orientation of the low-grade social and cultural specialists has become more crystallized since 1970.

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Making Sense of Middle-Class Politics: A Secondary Analysis of the 1987 British General Election Survey

Cited by 15 publications

References 11 publications

The sources of political orientations in post‐industrial society: social class and education revisited

The sources of political orientations in post‐industrial society: social class and education revisited

Class, the Stratification Order and Party Identification

The Rise of `New' Social Classes within the Service Class in The Netherlands

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