Class voting, social change, and the left in Australia, 1943–96¹

Abstract

The relationship between class and voting choices has been the subject of controversy in recent years, especially in connection with the apparent decline of the traditional left. This paper examines class voting in Australia, focusing on three major issues: (1) changes in the overall strength of class voting (2) realignment, or changes in the relative political positions of the classes (3) the connection between the strength of class voting and support for Labor. It finds that (1) there is a decline in 'general' class voting (2) much of this decline involves a realignment of certain middle class groups, but there is no support for the popular idea that class alignments have become more complex (3) there is no connection between the strength of class voting and Labor performance. Our results cast doubt on accounts that regard the electoral difficulties of left parties as a symptom of the decline of class.

Plus ça change…?Institutional, Political and Social Influences on Local Spatial Variations in Australian Federal Voting

“…Andersen and Heath (2002) also found something similar in Britain; that is, they concluded that the effect of contextual social class on voting Conservative was stronger for manual workers than for non-manual ones until the late 1970s, and suggested a similar explanation to mine. Changes in the strength of the relationship between class and vote (see Goot 1994;Weakliem and Western 1999) and in the nature of support for the ALP as it modified or discarded many of its traditional policies readily explain why this effect became non-significant in Australia after the late 1980s.…”

Postmaterialism and postmodernization in Australian electoral politics

“…Based upon similar diagrams for France and Germany in Inglehart (1997), it therefore seems that we are justified in proposing a schema of the nature of Figure 1 As mentioned earlier, the recent work by Jackman (1998) and Weakliem and Western (1999) has begun to offer some understanding of dimensionality in Australian political choice. Weakliem and Western (1999) Aborigines or levels of immigration."…”

“…Weakliem and Western (1999) Aborigines or levels of immigration." (Jackman 1998: 182) However, since he was mainly concerned with attitudes to race, in particular the relationship between elite and electorate opinion and the temptation to 'play the race card', he does not directly address the question of whether the emergence of the race dimension indicates a broader realignment of political discourse along the lines suggested by Figure 1.…”

“…Nevertheless, the increasing significance of the newer parties has prompted some reexamination of the adequacy of the traditional left-right interpretation of electoral politics, with Jackman (1998) and Weakliem and Western (1999) being two recent . Postmaterialism and Postmodernization in Australian electoral politics, Electoral Studies, 23(1): 45-72. prominent examples.…”

Klasseneinflüsse auf das Wahlverhalten und die Wahlbeteiligung

“…In diesem Aufsatz soll es nicht um eine weitere Analyse der Frage nach den Trendverläufen des Klassenwahlverhaltens (Schnell und Kohler 1995;Evans 1999b) oder nach den Ursachen für verschiedene Trendverläufe (Weakliem und Western 1999) (1994-2002, für 1990 liegen für beide Teile Deutschlands unterschiedliche Datensätze vor). In der Literatur zum Einfluss von Klassenlage auf Wahlverhalten in den post-kommunistischen Ländern zeigt sich üblicherweise ein zunächst nur schwaches Klassenwahlverhalten, dieses nimmt jedoch im Laufe der Zeit zu, es kommt zu einem "class realignment" (vgl.…”