Publisher's Synopsis
This is a study of changes that have occurred in British party and electoral politics since 1964. It assesses the decline of Labour party support and attributes it to changes in social structure that have reduced the size of class groups which provided the bulk of the Labour vote and to the reduced appeal of Labour to these groups. A similar decline in Conservative support among traditional Tory social groups makes this a general phenomenon of declining class voting. The consequence of this decline has been to open the way to individual choice between parties based on issue preferences rather than class loyalty. It also results in the rising support for minor parties in response to new issue concerns. To account for these changes, the author employs evidence from surveys conducted after each of the seven general elections held between 1964 and 1983. The presentation has been so structured as to make it easy to follow the main line of argument.
