Do they want us to vote?
If you look at table 1 it shows you that the highest social classes, A and B which consists of high managerial and intermediate managerial jobs. Voted just under 20% more than the lowest social classes, D and E which consists of semi-skilled manual workers, pensioners and the unemployed. Table 1 also shows us that as your social class decreases, the likelihood of you voting decreases with it. Table 1 shows us that in the last two general elections we can see that the higher social classes have turned out for voting more than the lower social classes. This has resulted to conservative wins. Thus it can be seen that your social class plays a major role in whether or not you are likely to vote.
In terms of what this does for society, it means that the higher social classes are controlling the majority vote and choosing who they want to be in power. This isn’t democracy. Why is it that the higher social classes are voting but the lower social classes aren’t? Proper education in the political system and political engagement is a major reason. Lower classes are not given adequate education on the political system, whereas the higher social classes most certainly are (Hoskins, Janmaat & Melis, Forthcoming). This results in people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds not being interested or passionate in politics, thus they do not vote in general elections. Table 1 validates that people from higher socioeconomic backgrounds turn out for voting consistently more than those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Another reason is the lack of trust which lower classes have with politicians from the many instances of dishonesty. Recently the ‘leave’ campaign leading up to the EU referendum. Campaigned that by leaving the EU, it will free up £350 million a week that will go into the NHS. The next day Nigel Farage a campaigner for the ‘leave’ campaign admitted that the money promised to the NHS was not guranteed (Independent, 2016).
The current education system abandons people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds by not teaching them enough about the political system in schools. Education has been proposed as one of the main solutions to increasing levels of engagement (Nie et al, 1996). The difference is that people from higher social classes with a greater socioeconomic backgrounds receive a very good education that allows its students to understand politics which only encourages them to be politically engaged (Hoskins, Janmaat & Melis, Forthcoming). As there isn’t a great understanding of politics taught to lower social classes in schools they are not interested in voting (Verba et al, 1995).They cannot relate to politics or politicians thus they have no trust or hope in political engagement. The education system is governed by our own government which epitomises that our education system and voting system are not democratic in the slightest.
The fact that many lower socioeconomic backgrounds are not voting is problematic. Why? Well if a category of people consistently don’t vote and another category do. It shows that the party that wins are not a victor that is truly representative of all social classes. Rather just representative of the higher social classes. Every general election millions of people don’t vote more of them being from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than higher. Which is just another example of how electoral politics is not truly democratic which stems from education not being democratic. The education system recreates and reproduces socioeconomic inequality (Bourdieu, 1996). When this happens over generations it’s even worst and votes from people of a lower socioeconomic backgrounds decrease even more. This is for two reasons, one that a person from a lower social class won’t vote because they themselves are from a lower class. Politics and voting is not encouraged by lower classed parents because of their parents and so forth. Another reason is that due to them being from a lower class their education is lacking. They are not taught enough about the political system or the importance of voting. Thus they face doubly worst hopes for political engagement.
Table 3 shows the probability of people voting from what educational qualifications they have. Table 3 tells us that vocational qualifications are worst for influencing people to vote. As you can see L3 academic (A levels) are 10% more likely to vote than L3 Vocational. L2 academic (GCSE A-C) are even just above L3 Vocational. In terms of level of education L3 Vocational should be on par with L3 Academic in terms of probability of voting. This is due to the fact that they are seen as near equal in terms of levels of qualification. Instead L2 Academic is actually better for influencing people to vote. To really highlight the issue the table shows that L2 vocational is near 20% less than L2 Academic. This shows then that academia is better for getting people to vote compared to vocational qualifications. Is this because GCSE’s and A levels consist of studying a varied amount of subjects, some of them that include the teaching of politics. Whereas vocational subjects focus more on one subject in detail. This argument can be supported as Germany and Denmark’s vocational courses are seen as important and even include citizenship (Hoskins et al, 2014). From this they don’t see levels of voting drop for people of vocational qualifications (ibid). The inclusion of citizenship in vocational courses could be the difference (ibid).
Word count: 869. (Without references)
Biblography/ Reference List
Bourdieu, P. (1996) The state of nobility: Elite schools in the field of power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hoskins, B., Janmaat, J.G. and Melis, G. (Forthcoming) Tackling inequalities in political socialisation: A Systematic analysis of Access to and Mitigation Effects of Learning Citizenship at School. Social Science Research.
Hoskins, B., Janmaat, J.G., Han, C., & Muijis, D. (2014) Inequalities in the education system and the reproduction of socioeconomic disparities in voting in England, Denmark and Germany: the influence of country context, tracking and self-efficacy on voting intentions of students age 16–18.
Stone, J. (2016). Nigel Farage backtracks on Leave campaign’s ‘£350m for the NHS’ pledge hours after result. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-result-nigel-farage-nhs-pledge-disowns-350-million-pounds-a7099906.html
Nie, N., Junn, J., & Stehlik-Barry, K. (1996). Education and democratic citizenship in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Verba, S, Schlozman, KL & Brady, HE (1995). Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. London: Havard university press.
Table 1 & 2:
Table 3: Hoskins, B. and Janmaat, J.G., 2016. Educational trajectories and inequalities of political engagement among adolescents in England. Social science research, 56, pp.73-89.