The New Politics of Class

This book explores the new politics of class in 21st century Britain. It shows how the changing shape of the class structure since 1945 has led political parties to change, which has both reduced class voting and increased class non-voting. This argument is developed in three stages. The first is to show that there has been enormous social continuity in class divisions. The authors demonstrate this using extensive evidence on class and educational inequality, perceptions of inequality, identity and awareness, and political attitudes over more than fifty years. The second stage is to show that there has been enormous political change in response to changing class sizes. Party policies, politicians' rhetoric, and the social composition of political elites have radically altered. Parties offer similar policies, appeal less to specific classes, and are populated by people from more similar backgrounds. Simultaneously the mass media have stopped talking about the politics of class. The third stage is to show that these political changes have had three major consequences. First, as Labour and the Conservatives became more similar, class differences in party preferences disappeared.

Appeal · Argument (complex analysis) · Class (philosophy) · Democracy · Mainstream · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social class · Sociology · Voting · Working class · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Economy and Marxism · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Attitudes · Great britain · History · Political activity · Political parties · Political Parties · Politics and government · politics and government