Class, attitudes, and electoral politics in britain, 1974-1983

There is now general agreement that social class has declined in electoral importance in Britain in recent years. There is disagreement, however, about the role political attitudes have come to play in structuring the vote. This article builds on our previous research on political attitudes and voting in Britain by applying multivariate analysis to survey data collected for the 1983 general election. The analysis uses a sophisticated conceptualization of social class and political attitudes, and examines both their interrelationship and their conjoint influence on the vote. The results show, first, that the most salient political attitudes in the 1983 election, socialism and nuclearism, were significantly rooted in social class. Second, considered comparatively, attitudes were about three times as important an influence in the election as social class. Finally, a longitudinal analysis spanning the October 1974, 1979, and 1983 elections, confirms other research and indicates that there has been little fundamental change in the electorate's overall attitudinal structure but that the change there has been contributed to the Labour Party's falling vote over the three elections.