Voter turnout at the british general election of 1992: rational choice, social standing or political efficacy?

Pattie, Charles; Johnston, Ron

doi:10.1111/1475-6765.00383

Cited by 118 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The argument is that the resource-rich are more likely to turn out than the resourcepoor, and that those excluded from participating in elections might also be those members of society who are at greatest risk of being socially excluded. Study after study confirms that voters are usually more affluent, of a higher social class and older than non-voters (Lipset 1960, Crewe 1981, Leighley and Nagler 1992, Pattie and Johnston 1998.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Space matters: Geographic variability of electoral turnout determinants in the 2012 London mayoral election

Mansley

Demšar

2015

Electoral Studies

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Abstract:Electoral participation is an important measure of the health of a liberal democracy. The determinants of voter turnout have been examined across a range of elections, but geographical approaches are relatively rare and are mostly performed at large scale aggregations and for national elections. This paper addresses this gap by exploring geographic variability in relationships between the turnout at a local election and socio-demographic variables at a detailed spatial level. Specifically, we focus on the London mayoral election, an important element of the 21st century local government reform in Britain, which, until now, has seldom been analysed from a geographical perspective. By linking the turnout from the 2012 mayoral election to socio-demographic data from the 2011 Census and doing this at the level of London's 625 wards, for the first time a more detailed picture of the spatially uneven nature of turnout is evidenced than in previous studies which have focused on larger aggregations, typically constituencies. Analysis is approached through spatial analysis using geographically weighted regression (GWR), which enables the investigation of local variations in voting patterns. The results demonstrate that electoral processes do vary over geographic space and that some of the variables that are traditionally assumed to affect the turnout in a specific way, do not do so uniformly over space or even change the direction to the opposite of the traditionally assumed affect in certain locations. Our findings present a starting point for a more detailed investigation as to why this heterogeneity exists and which social processes it relates to.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Space matters: Geographic variability of electoral turnout determinants in the 2012 London mayoral election

Mansley

Demšar

2015

Electoral Studies

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“…Table 5.3 suggests that those who feel personally efficacious are somewhat more likely to vote (Parry et al, 1992;Pattie and Johnston, 1998). Thus, among those who disagree with the statement "people like me have no say in what the government does" (and who therefore can be seen as having high levels of political efficacy), nearly three-quarters reported voting in the 2001 election, compared with fewer than six in ten among those who agreed strongly with the statement.…”

Section: Electoral Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is There a Crisis of Political Participation?

Curtice¹,

Seyd²

2003

British Social Attitudes: Continuity and Change Over Two Decades

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There appears to be a crisis of political participation in Britain. Turnout at the last UK general election was, at 58 per cent, lower than at any other general election since 1918. Moreover, voters have been reluctant to go to the polls in every other kind of election held over the last six years. Unsurprisingly, then, politicians of all political persuasions have been asking themselves how they can 're-engage' the public with the political process.This decline in electoral participation might seem particularly surprising given one of the key social changes to have occurred in Britain over the last two decades -the expansion of educational attainment. Education is supposedly a 'democratic good', meant to encourage adherence to democratic values, a sense of political competence and thus a greater propensity to vote (Almond and Verba, 1963;Wolfinger and Rosenstone, 1980). As Almond and Verba's study of The Civic Culture put it:The educated classes possess the keys to political participation and involvement while those with less education are less well equipped.As Table 5.1 shows, in the mid-1980s nearly half the adult British population had no educational qualifications. Now, less than a quarter are in this position. Over the same period, the proportion with a degree has more than doubled (to 16 per cent), while those with at least an A level or its equivalent now comprise well over two-fifths of the adult population (rather than just over a quarter as they did two decades ago). So Britain has experienced a substantial increase in overall levels of educational attainment, something we might expect to produce an increase in electoral participation. That the very opposite seems to have happened is nothing less than a 'puzzle of participation ' (Brody, 1978).

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“…However, party ties are also important for participation (Dalton et al 1984). People with only weak, or no party identification at all, show a lower propensity to participate in elections (Pattie and Johnston 1998). An important and widely discussed (especially in German political science (Feist 1992)) 3 factor is the attitude that voting is a civic duty.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual and Contextual Determinants of Electoral Participation

Bühlmann

Freitag

2006

Swiss Political Science Review

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Individual-level explanations of electoral participation typically argue that nonvoting is determined by a combination of facilitative and motivational factors. We advance the argument that, beyond individual characteristics, there are pivotal contextual features which enable or impede individual action through specific incentive structures. Thus, contextual factors influence the individual propensity to vote or to abstain. For the first time the data of Selects 2003 allows for the testing of contextual effects, at least on the cantonal level. Several multilevel analyses show that high party competition, compulsory voting, and strong Catholicism foster individual participation. The findings clearly indicate that an individual's propensity to vote is influenced by personal characteristics as well as by cantonal attributes.

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Voter turnout at the british general election of 1992: rational choice, social standing or political efficacy?

Cited by 118 publications

References 28 publications

Space matters: Geographic variability of electoral turnout determinants in the 2012 London mayoral election

Space matters: Geographic variability of electoral turnout determinants in the 2012 London mayoral election

Is There a Crisis of Political Participation?

Individual and Contextual Determinants of Electoral Participation

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