Premium
The Social and Economic Determinants of Voter Behaviour: Evidence from the 1992 General Election In Scotland
Author(s) -
Fielding David
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
scottish journal of political economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.4
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1467-9485
pISSN - 0036-9292
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9485.00094
Subject(s) - unemployment , economics , general election , independence (probability theory) , social choice theory , voter model , voting , class (philosophy) , public economics , econometrics , demographic economics , microeconomics , macroeconomics , political science , law , politics , statistical physics , computer science , statistics , physics , mathematics , artificial intelligence
This paper presents a model of voter choice which embodies less restrictive assumptions than those previously applied to UK elections and opinion polls, relaxing the standard assumption of the ‘Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives’ and allowing for voters to ‘group’ electoral alternatives perceived to be particularly similar to each other. Application of the model to the Scottish General Election results for 1992 indicates that relaxation of this assumption is necessary. In addition, the paper provides evidence on the socio‐economic determinants of voter choice, and the relative magnitudes of the effects of income, local unemployment and social class.