Does class still explain how people vote?

Résumé du document

"People think politically as they are socially. Social characteristics determine political ones." Wrote Lazarsfeld in The People's choice published in 1944. As this statement highlights the paramount importance of social class on electoral choices, it is often used to explain the sociological perspective on votes, i.e. the fact that vote choice is a function of a group membership. Historically, class-voting, in the Marxist sense, existed, as the working-class used to support the left while the middle class favored the liberals and the conservatives. However, since World War II, social classes appear decreasingly relevant to explain voting patterns. Hence one question must be asked: Does class still explain how people vote?

Extraits

[...] (2000). Class and Party in American Politics. [11]Nieuwbeerta, P (1995), The Democratic Class Struggle in Twenty Countries,1945–1990. Amsterdam: Thesis. [12]Hout, M., and al. (1995). “The democratic class struggle in the United States,” in the American Sociological Review. [...]

[...] Clark illustrates this phenomenon in The Breakdown of Class Politics as he explains that the drastic erosion of the voter's basis of traditional left parties have pushed these latter to find new ways to attract new voters. In England for example Blair's Labour Party has embraced marked oriented and fiscally conservative policies while adopting liberal social policies (regarding women's rights, gay rights or environmental protection). This recast of the Labour Party as a ‘catch all party' has weakened the signals based on ideological distinctiveness sent to the electorate by the two main parties and thus class-based voting. [...]

[...] (2011), “How Parties Shape Class Politics: Explaining the Decline of the Class Basis of Party Support” in the British Journal of Political Science 42, pp. 137-161. - Van Der Waal, J. and al. (2007) “Class Is Not Dead—It Has Been Buried Alive: Class Voting and Cultural Voting in Postwar Western Societies (1956–1990)” in Politics & Society, Vol No pp. 403-426. - Evans, G. (2000), “The continued significance of class voting” in the Annual Review of Political Science No pp. 401-417. [...]

[...] Indeed, a perceived decline in class-voting can actually be caused by an important increase in cultural voting which works in the opposite direction. Thus, one might conclude that class-voting has decreased while it has actually increased (but less than cultural voting). Different searches conducted in the US have supported this theory. For example, Stonecash[10] has demonstrated that the relationship between incomes and voting behaviors haven't become weaker in the US since World War II but rather stronger. This contradicts the conclusion made by Nieuwbertaa[11] out of the data he collected showing the existence of a decline of class-voting (in the broad sense). [...]

[...] These past social enemies are nowadays gathered around the issue of immigration. B. New cleavages Eventually, instead of talking about class dealignment, to be more accurate, one should talk about class realignment: class still explain how people vote because, if the old Marxist cleavage has disappeared, new cleavages have emerged. For example, in France, Mayer distinguishes a new cleavage between independent workers and employees as the former are attached to free enterprise and individual initiative, as they own their means of production, and as feel threatened by left parties which seem to always defend the rights of the employees against the owners and to reinforce state intervention in social and economical life. [...]