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Class, Prospects and the Life-cycle: Explaining the Association between Class Position and Political Preferences

Nuffield College, Oxford, and the London School of Economics and Political Science

This paper examines the role of promotion prospects in explaining class differences in political preferences at different points in the life-cycle. The argument contains four main propositions. First, that present resources are often discounted in favour of future rewards when making political choices. Second, that the extent of future rewards is a key distinguishing characteristic of social classes Third, that differential perceptions of future opportunities for rewards will lead to individuals in different classes preferring parties that are at different points along a left-right continuum. Fourth, that with age there is a diminishing utility of future rewards and increasing importance is therefore attached to present resources, which reduces the discounting of present for future rewards when making political choices. These hypotheses are tested using British national survey data The evidence, although of a limited nature, supports all four propositions. It is concluded, tentatively, that class differences in left-right partisanship among young people are primarily a result of class differences in expectations concerning future occupational rewards. Among older respondents, however, present resources are of considerably greater importance in explaining political divisions between classes. Empm cal support is therefore obtained for the role of prospective rewards in providing individuals in different classes with divergent interests, but this role diminishes in importance as the future foreshortens.

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 36, No. 3, 263-276 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/000169939303600308


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