The New Politics of Class: The Political Exclusion of the British Working Class - Hardcover

Evans, Geoffrey; Tilley, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198755759 ISBN 13: 9780198755753

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The New Politics of Class argues that reportsof the death of class in Britain are premature. In fact, there has been hugesocial continuity in class divisions over the last fifty years, both in termsof economic inequality and political attitudes. The change that has occurred ispolitical. Party policies, politicians' rhetoric, and the social composition ofpolitical elites have radically altered. As Labour and the Conservatives becamemore similar, and more middle class, in the 1990s class differences inmainstream party preferences disappeared. It does not follow that classpolitics is dead, however. Formerly minor parties, notably UKIP, have taken disillusionedworking class voters from the two main parties. More importantly, the middleclass consensus offered by the mainstream parties has meant that working classpeople are now much less likely to vote. Britain, like the US, has followed apath of working class political exclusion, fundamentally underminingrepresentative democracy. The New Politics of Class also explains thedramatic pattern of class voting at the 2016 EU referendum: direct democracymeant that for the first time in decades there was a clear political choicewhich exposed the continuing divisions between the classes.

About this title

About the Author:

Geoffrey Evans is Professor of the Sociology of Politics at the University of Oxford and an Official Fellow of Nuffield College. He has published extensively in political science, sociology, and related disciplines on social structure, public opinion, and political behaviour. His publications include The End of Class Politics? (OUP, 1999) and Political Choice Matters: Explaining the Strength of Class and Religious Cleavages in Cross-National Perspective (OUP, 2013). He is also an editor for the journal Electoral Studies.

James Tilley is a Professor of Politics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. His research is mainly in the fields of public opinion and electoral behaviour specialising in British politics. He has published widely on various topics within these fields including the social bases of voting behaviour, generational changes in political attitudes, economic voting and the attribution of responsibility to governments, and sources of public support for the EU. His most recent book was Blaming Europe? Responsibility without Accountability in the European Union (2014).

Review:

This book demonstrates that class politics is alive in Britain, but has taken on a new shape. The size and make-up of classes have changed, yet their distinctive preferences remain. It is the strategic reactions of office-seeking parties to these changes in class proportions, above all that of the Labour Party, that explain why classes have realigned their partisan affiliations. Splendidly captured through the lens of British politics, this book more generally illustrates the core political dynamics of post-industrial democratic capitalism. * Herbert Kitschelt, George V. Allen Professor of International Relations, Duke University. * This book challenges the prevailing view that class politics in Britain is no more. It provides an important corrective to conventional wisdom regarding the decline of class, and a vital contribution to understanding the falling turnout of the working class. * Jan Leighley, Professor of Political Science, American University. * In a masterly analysis of long-term social and political change in Britain, Evans and Tilley show that people's class position still influences their values - but that this class divide is now little reflected at the ballot box. Their findings leave us pondering whether social democratic parties like Labour can successfully adapt to a world in which the university graduate is coming to be more commonplace than the manual worker. * John Curtice, Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde. * This is a book of outstanding academic and political importance. It reveals the changing relationship between social class and party support over recent decades and brings out the far-reaching implications for British political life in the post-Brexit era. * John Goldthorpe, Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford. *

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0198755759
• ISBN 13: 9780198755753
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304