The Inequalities in Class, Education and Voting – Why Things Need To Change
“Democracy is unthinkable without the ability of citizens to participate freely in the governing process” (Verba, Schlozman, Brady, 1995, p.1). This sentence is exactly why we need to talk about the inequality within political engagement. After my previous blog looking into how and why young people politically engage I fell down the rabbit hole. It’s not just young people that are facing inequalities within voting. There is huge evidence that suggests your education and your class have a huge effect on your political behaviours. In the 2017 general election we could see that as we move down the categories of social class we can see turnout fall fairly dramatically, from a 69% turnout in the AB category to 53% in the DE category (See Fig 1) (Ipsos MORI, 2017). Here I am going to argue that class and education are key in understanding the inequalities of voting. It is time this inequality is addressed to call Britain truly democratic.
(Fig. 1. – Graph Showing Voter Turnout Among Social Classes)
I went to a very high achieving faith school in Greater London. It was of the up most importance to the school to teach us how to be strong, educated, well rounded individuals. We were taught everything from wood work to cooking, from graphic design to textiles. I cannot deny I was very fortunate to have been afforded the education I was. Yet, here I am struggling to remember one instance in which someone spoke to me about voting. Not once. I should mention that I was given a Citizenship course in Year Nine. This is compulsory and is meant to “foster pupils’ keen awareness and understanding of democracy, government and law” (Doing SMSC, 2015) – it didn’t. I’m sure many believe that it is not for teachers to impart knowledge about politics, but I argue that this is wrong.
If we are learning everything we known about politics at home, voting attitudes will be cyclical, meaning if your parents don’t vote, odds on neither will you. It is exactly this cycle that needs to be broken in order to see the change that we need within British politics. For this cycle to be broken we need to provide young people with an education on voting within the national curriculum, and not a wishy-washy year nine citizenship course. For democracy to function effectively there needs to be knowledge, and civic engagement both of which need to be taught (Diamond, 1997).
It is not just that we aren’t taught about civic engagement at school, but there is also a huge correlation between the level in which you are educated to and the likelihood you will turn out to vote. Research showed that there is a relationship between the level and type of qualification you receive at school; a vast majority of those working with vocational or lower level degrees are from a lower class background, and these are the least likely to turnout to vote (Hoskins & Jamaat, 2016).
It is interesting to note at this point however, that some argue class is no longer as big a factor as once thought. Research found that one in three adults class themselves within the wrong socio economic bracket (this being upper, middle, or working class). This research found that individual votes were affected more by subjective than objective class. Suggesting that is it not class itself but how you see yourself (Kellner, 2014).
This being said, we cannot ignore that correlation between class, education and voting. It can be seen that it is not just voting that is affected. Your socio-economic background affects your willingness to join in with voluntary political learning in the classroom i.e. debating, mock election, and student council. This effect can be seen as early as eleven and continues all the way up to sixteen (Hoskins, Jamaat & Melis, 2017). If students don’t even feel comfortable or confident enough to join in with mock versions of politics, what hope is there for them when it comes to the real deal?
(Channel Four – Looking at who the working class vote for.)
So here, I call for all of you reading this to think about how their social class and their education has impacted their voting attitudes. There has to be a cry for change. Young people, from all class backgrounds must be given the knowledge, confidence and power to access their political potential. Let’s teach our young people to vote. Let’s get every demographic to be truly representative. Let’s stop this inequality.
Bibliography
Diamond, L, 2018. “Cultivating Democratic Citizenship: Education for a New Century of Democracy in the Americas.”. Social Studies, [Online]. Vol 88 Is 6, p.244. Available at: https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=4dc7d177-1bc3-49fd-a613-ca85d0d6da6d%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLGF0aGVucyZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZl#AN=EJ557570&db=eric [Accessed 6 March 2018].
Doing SMSC, 2015 “Citizenship: a statutory national curriculum subject” [Online] Available: http://www.doingsmsc.org.uk/citizenship/ [Last Accessed: 6th March 2018]
Hoskins, B. and Janmaat, J.G., 2016. “Educational trajectories and inequalities of political engagement among adolescents in England”. Social Science Research [Online] 56, pp.73-89. Available:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X1500188X?_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_origin=gateway&_docanchor=&md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb [Last Accessed: 6th March 2018]
Hoskins, B et al, 2017 “Tackling inequalities in political socialisation: A systematic analysis of access to and mitigation effects of learning citizenship at school” Social Science Research [Online] 68. p.88 – 101 Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X16304458?_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_origin=gateway&_docanchor=&md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb [Last Accessed: 6th March 2018]
Ipsos MORI, 2017 “How Britain voted in the 2017 election” [Online] Available: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2017-election [Last Accessed 6th March 2018]
Kellner, P (2014) “The changing politics of social class” [Online] Available: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/06/09/changing-politics-social-class/ [Last Accessed: 6th March 2018]
Verba, S. Schlozman, K. Brady, H. 1995 “Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics”. 4th Ed, [Online] Harvard University Press: Cambridge, p.1, Available: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YFiCO5f0BKAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Voice+and+equality+Verba,+Schlozman+and+brady&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Voice%20and%20equality%20Verba%2C%20Schlozman%20and%20brady&f=false [Last Accessed: 6th March 2018]