Why are working-class voices absent
in politics?
The social class divide in the UK has been present for centuries. Social class inequalities not only have an impact on the obvious parts of our lives such as having the ability to afford necessities and luxury goods. In fact, many of you reading are already aware that our social class impacts almost every part of our lives. From the quality of education, university choices, and employment opportunities. Until I began studying sociology at univ
ersity I never properly considered the fact that politics is experienced differently depending on a person’s social class. Although this may seem obvious to most people I naively grew up believing that the government worked in the interest of people who needed the most help and support. Which is an ideal world means people from working-class and ethnic minorities backgrounds would be two groups among the many in society who require the most support from our government. When I think back to my rose-tinted view of our government as you can imagine I look back and laugh as it couldn’t be further from the truth.
The truth was people who grew up similarly to me were scrutinized and demonized by our government so that they could blame working-class people for their mistakes and lack of support. If we look back to how working-class people are portrayed in the media it is very rarely in a positive light, as you will see from the headlines below.
These attitudes from our government towards people from low economic backgrounds may suggest why there is a lower percentage of people from working-class backgrounds who participate in politics. The graph below shows the voter turnout by class. In the graph ‘AB’ refers to people who are in an intermediate, higher managerial, or professional role, whereas ‘DE’ refers to semi or unskilled manual workers and the unemployed. As you can see people who have lower-paying jobs (working class) are far less likely to vote in comparison when compared to the middle and upper classes. (Ipsos MORI, 2009)
Turnout among social class in General Elections 2015 & 2017, and the EU Referendum 2016 (Ipsos Mori, 2017)
Why is Voter Turnout so low among the working class?
The difference in voter turnout between classes may be for a number of different reasons, however, this blog will be focused on two key reasons that I feel passionate about which include: a lack of citizenship education for the working class and distrust in the government which impacts the number of working-class voters.
Citizenship education is the ‘preparation of individuals to participate as active and responsible citizens in a democracy’ (Herbet & Sears, 2001). Different forms of citizenship education have become compulsory in the majority of UK schools and can take form in ‘class councils, mock elections and school debates’ they are ‘typically accessed by young people from privileged backgrounds’ (Bryony Hoskins, 2017). This is where the role of schools can play a crucial part in increasing the number of working-class voters and the all younger generations to come. Schools are regarded as an effective tool for ‘social cohesion and democracy’ (Hoskins, B., D’hombres, B. & Campbell, J., 2008). However, similarly to the British government, our education system has been criticised for marginalising students from low income backgrounds.
The marginalisation of working-class children takes form in may different ways throughout their school years. However, Bryony Hoskins found that it was the type of education that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are receiving is the ultimate factor that impacts their likeliness to vote. Across Europe it was found that most disadvantaged students, undertook vocational educational routes. The reasons for this are unclear, however Howard Becker’s labelling theory is a reasonable suggestion. It was also found that vocational education routes lacked in ‘quality and quantity of HRE/EDC provision’ (Hoskins, 2017). The research followed different students who undertook academic Level 3 qualifications and EQF Level 2 vocational qualifications or lower and it was found that there was a 70% chance of young people who held a level 3 qualification in voting in the 2017 general election ‘compared to less than a 50% chance of voting if they had undertaken EQF Level 2 vocational qualifications’ (Hoskins, 2017).
The impact that the lack of citizenship education is having on students and the political system is particularly significant. This is because the basis of our democracy relies on the assumption of equal representation through equal participation (Geboers et al., 2012; Hoskins & Janmaat, 2015). Unfortunately, in the UK this is not the case as working class citizens are missing their chance to have their voices heard by choosing not to votes and protest the issues that impact their lives the most. Which has ultimately meant that the views of the middle class and the elite are being put into action by our government, which further alienates and marginalises the disadvantaged members of society.
The Demonization of the Working class
As I previously mentioned at the start of this blog, the attitude towards working class people from our government have rarely been positive. They have been regarded by politicians as the ‘feral underclass’ and ‘Chavs’. Owen Jones book ‘Chavs’ speaks about how the miscommunication between classes and ‘the Conservatives’ demeaning of trade unions has helped to strip the working classes of what public voice they had, so that the middle class has effectively become the new decision-making class’ (Hanley, 2011). Overall, from my own experiences of growing up in a working class family and looking into evidence behind low voting rates from the working class I can assume that many working class people have lost faith in the UK political system after being demonised and scrutinised.
Finally, I believe the only solution to this problem is for school to promote citizenship education for all students, not only those from middle class backgrounds, so that working class children can begin to understand the importance of using their votes and voices to change the government that has been working against them for so long.
What are your thoughts?
Bibliography
Ipsos MORI (2009). Social Grade: A Classification Tool. [online] Ipsos MORI. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/publication/6800-03/MediaCT_thoughtpiece_Social_Grade_July09_V3_WEB.pdf [Accessed 27 Feb. 2019]
Ipsos MORI (2017). How the voters voted in the 2017 election. Ipsos MORI estimates. [online] Ipsos MORI. Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2017-06/how-britain-voted-in-the-2017-election_2.pdf
Digital Synopsis. (2015). This Brilliant Comic Strip On Rich Vs Poor Upbringing Will Humble You. [online] Available at: https://digitalsynopsis.com/inspiration/privileged-kids-on-a-plate-pencilsword-toby-morris/.
Geboers, E., Geijsel, F., Admiraal, W. and ten Dam, G. (2012). Review of the effects of citizenship education. Educational Research Review, [online] 9, pp.158-173. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2012.02.001
Hébert, Y.M. and Sears, A., 2001. Citizenship education. New Brunswick: Canadian Education Association
Bryony Hoskins (2017). Socio-economic inequalities in political engagement: the consequences of limited citizenship education within vocational education and training. [online] Coyote Magazine. Available at: https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/coyote-magazine/socio-economic-inequalities
Hoskins, B., D’hombres, B. and Campbell, J., 2008. Does formal education have an impact on active citizenship behaviour?. European educational research journal, 7(3), pp.386-402.
Hanley, L. (2011). Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones – review. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jun/08/chavs-demonization-owen-jones-review.
Hi Hannah,
I think you’ve created a great blog, with some very informative information that I was not aware of before reading your blog. I love how you started off with your own personal experience and ended with your own personal experience too. This made it an enjoyable read as it felt more personal and relatable, rather than just a blog of facts and statistics.
I do agree that the working class are scrutinized and looked down upon by our government, which does result in lack of trust in our government having our best interest at heart.
However, from what I’ve been reading recently, it seems that this has begun to change in more recent years.
For example, I wonder if you’ve read this article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50543903
It seems that the gap between working class and middle class has reduced, as in 2019 both sides were equally voting for both labour and conservatives, whereas before people from working class were more inclined to vote for labour and middle class for conservatives.
It seems that gender, ethnic minority, and age have had a bigger gap than social class, especially younger and older voters. Such as Brexit; Brexit showed us the large gap between younger and older voters, as younger voters were more likely to vote Remain and the older voters mostly voted Leave. I think this is a good point to look at as well, as to another reason why inequalities in voting have been occurring.
Nevertheless, I really enjoyed your blog and found it very informative! Thank you for educating me on some great points! 🙂