Since the start of Parliament, Parties have fought for the votes of the public. Hence, why it's important to know what factors influence voting behaviour the most, to allow them to target a specific area. This essay will explore the importance of each factor and it's influence on the public's vote.
A factor that can have a huge influence on the public is the media. Newspapers can be biased and seek to influence readers by shaping the news agenda in a certain way and by urging voters to vote for a particular party. In the 2015 UK Election, conservatives won most support from telegraph readers (69%) and the Daily Mail readers (59%) after both these papers endorsed a vote for the Conservatives. Labour won most support from Mirror readers (67%) …show more content…
Social class refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence and status. Since the 1970's there has been a steady decrease in voting by class called class de-alignment, Social class continues to remain one of the most important factors affecting voting behaviour today. For example, for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, according to the IPSOS Mori polling, 65% of those living in the fifth most deprived neighbourhoods in Scotland voted YES, compared to with just 36% of those in the one-fifth most affluent. This shows the traditional class loyalties still exist and shape attitudes. Whilst voting along class lines has decreased social class is still important to people deciding on how to vote. It has been tested and proven that the higher the social class, the more Conservatives the vote and the lower the social class, the higher the vote for Labour, This can be proven in 2015 Election, the Conservatives got most of their support from class AB voters (44%) and the least from DE (29%), and Labour got most of their support from voters from social class DE (37%) and got AB (28%) Therefore, showing the extent in which background plays a significant role in political attitudes as children will normally vote the same as their parents, indicating we vote along with our class to continue the influence of voting
A factor that can have a huge influence on the public is the media. Newspapers can be biased and seek to influence readers by shaping the news agenda in a certain way and by urging voters to vote for a particular party. In the 2015 UK Election, conservatives won most support from telegraph readers (69%) and the Daily Mail readers (59%) after both these papers endorsed a vote for the Conservatives. Labour won most support from Mirror readers (67%) …show more content…
Social class refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence and status. Since the 1970's there has been a steady decrease in voting by class called class de-alignment, Social class continues to remain one of the most important factors affecting voting behaviour today. For example, for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, according to the IPSOS Mori polling, 65% of those living in the fifth most deprived neighbourhoods in Scotland voted YES, compared to with just 36% of those in the one-fifth most affluent. This shows the traditional class loyalties still exist and shape attitudes. Whilst voting along class lines has decreased social class is still important to people deciding on how to vote. It has been tested and proven that the higher the social class, the more Conservatives the vote and the lower the social class, the higher the vote for Labour, This can be proven in 2015 Election, the Conservatives got most of their support from class AB voters (44%) and the least from DE (29%), and Labour got most of their support from voters from social class DE (37%) and got AB (28%) Therefore, showing the extent in which background plays a significant role in political attitudes as children will normally vote the same as their parents, indicating we vote along with our class to continue the influence of voting