S/P/73. What is class voting, why has it declined and what are the implications?

This paper examines the nature of class voting and compares the idea surrounding how the class-vote relationship has changed in the last 30 years. It argues that the significance of class voting diminishing is not based upon long-term sociological changes, but more structural differences in party alignment and class group sizes. The essay outlines various classifications of ‘class systems’, and goes on to apply these to empirical data for class voting in both the UK and US. It then analyses the relative strengths of ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ arguments for class dealignment.