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Elections and Referendums

Models of Voting Behaviour

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Recall questions on what voting behaviour means and on the primacy, recency and party identification models.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Define voting behaviour.

Key term

How did class traditionally shape voting in the UK?

Key term

How has education emerged as a dividing line in voting?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Define voting behaviour.

    Model answer

    Voting behaviour is the study of how and why people vote as they do, and of the patterns in electoral choice across groups and over time.

  2. 2

    What is the primacy model of voting?

    Model answer

    It holds that voting is determined chiefly by long-standing social characteristics and party loyalties formed before the campaign begins.

  3. 3

    What is the recency model of voting?

    Model answer

    It holds that most voters decide on the basis of recent factors such as party performance, leaders, issues and the campaign itself.

  4. 4

    Explain the party identification model.

    Model answer

    Voters form an enduring psychological attachment to a party, often inherited through family and reinforced by class and community, and vote accordingly with little reassessment.

  5. 5

    What is valence voting?

    Model answer

    Valence voting is choosing on the basis of which party seems most competent to deliver widely shared goals such as a strong economy and good public services, rather than on ideological disagreement.

  6. 6

    How did class traditionally shape voting in the UK?

    Model answer

    Middle-class voters tended to support the Conservatives and manual working-class voters Labour, a link strong enough that class was once seen as the main determinant of party choice.

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