1. II--Social Status and Electoral Choice in Two Constituencies.
- Author
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Martin, F. M.
- Subjects
SOCIAL classes ,SOCIAL status ,BEHAVIOR ,SOCIAL groups ,SOCIAL mobility ,SOCIAL structure - Abstract
The article discusses social status and electoral choice in two constituencies in Great Britain in 1952. The statement that social class membership is of outstanding importance as a determining factor in political behavior would probably be regarded by most contemporary social scientists as little more than a truism. And it is perhaps for the very reason that the gross outlines of the relationship are so clearly perceptible that so few systematic attempts have yet been made to analyze its structure in any detail. The material presented in this paper forms part of the results of an inquiry into certain subjective aspects of English social stratification, carried out in September-October 1950. To study social class differences in voting behavior was only one of its aims: the inquiry was designed also to study, inter alia, varying conceptions of the nature of social classes and of the criteria of class membership, the social class placement of various occupations and attitudes to social mobility. An account of the design of the survey and of some of its findings will appear elsewhere; it may be useful, however, to include here some brief notes on the sample, and on the method employed of classifying respondents.
- Published
- 1952
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