Concept and measurement
Lipset (1960) saw elections as a 'democratic class struggle', and class was a key cleavage in cleavage theory. Alford (1963) measured class voting with the Alford index: manual workers' left vote share minus non-manual workers' left vote share.
Decline versus realignment
Clark, Lipset and Rempel (1993) argued class had lost political significance with affluence and education, a thesis discussed alongside partisan dealignment, post-materialism and economic voting. Hout, Brooks and Manza (1995) countered that better measures show realignment rather than decline, and Evans (2000) reviewed the debate.
Causes and consequences
Evans and Tilley (2012) linked the British decline to Labour's move to the centre, stressing party supply. Oesch (2008), using a new class schema, showed sociocultural professionals moving left and production workers toward right-wing populism. Gingrich and Häusermann (2015) showed the declining working-class vote reshaped the welfare support coalition.
FAQ
- What is class voting in simple terms?
- Voting split by class, with workers backing the left and the middle class the right.
- Has class voting disappeared?
- Its traditional form has weakened, but many studies find it persists in new forms under updated class schemes.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Lipset, S. M. (1960). Political man: The social bases of politics. Doubleday. Classic statement that class underpins elections.
- Alford, R. R. (1963). Party and society: The Anglo-American democracies. Rand McNally. Introduced the Alford index.
- Clark, T. N., Lipset, S. M., & Rempel, M. (1993). The declining political significance of social class. International Sociology, 8(3), 293–316. The decline thesis.
- Hout, M., Brooks, C., & Manza, J. (1995). The democratic class struggle in the United States, 1948–1992. American Sociological Review, 60(6), 805–828. Argues class voting realigned, not declined.
- Evans, G. (2000). The continued significance of class voting. Annual Review of Political Science, 3, 401–417. Reviews research and measurement debates.
- Oesch, D. (2008). The changing shape of class voting: An individual-level analysis of party support in Britain, Germany and Switzerland. European Societies, 10(3), 329–355. New class schema and changing class voting.
- Evans, G., & Tilley, J. (2012). How parties shape class politics: Explaining the decline of the class basis of party support. British Journal of Political Science, 42(1), 137–161. Party convergence explains decline.
- Gingrich, J., & Häusermann, S. (2015). The decline of the working-class vote, the reconfiguration of the welfare support coalition and consequences for the welfare state. Journal of European Social Policy, 25(1), 50–75. Consequences for the welfare coalition.