Like parent, like child: The impact of parental socialisation on class identity and partisanship.

The theoretical foundation of electoral behaviour research is the Michigan model which emphasizes socialisation and the development of partisan identities. In Britain, this was embellished to include class identity. Across Western societies, class voting, working class jobs and strength of party identities have been in decline, but identification as working class has remained high and relatively stable in Britain. This paper develops theoretical models of parental socialisation to identify effects on class and party identities. The empirical analysis reinforces previous findings about the intergenerational transmission of class identity and partisanship, but further shows that there are some moderating effects of occupation on this transmission. Most importantly, the paper finds that parental partisanship has a substantial effect on the formation of class identity. Therefore, it shows that class identity in contemporary Britain is a strong political identity in its origins as well as its effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]