Class, ethnicity, age, or education: what characteristics determine citizens' sense of political commonality?

Titelman, Noam (2023) Class, ethnicity, age, or education: what characteristics determine citizens' sense of political commonality? British Journal of Political Science, 53 (2). 806 - 814. ISSN 0007-1234

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Abstract

We know from election studies which demographic characteristics best predict vote choice, but we know far less about how citizens perceive their similarity to one another in terms of these characteristics. Previous research suggests that such perceptions may be crucial for the politicization of social identities and the emergence of political identities. I present results from a novel measurement strategy where respondents are presented with the profiles of two fellow citizens, including several demographic attributes. Respondents are asked which of the two they perceive themselves to have more in common with in terms of politics. Respondents' implicit trade-off of different demographic similarities allows me to measure the relative strength of their perceived political similarities. I find an important role for shared ethnicity, noticeably surpassing shared social class, age and education. Finally, I find that shared ethnicity receives substantially more weight among 2017 Conservative and 2016 Leave voters than among Labour and Remain voters.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-jo...
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Author
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Date Deposited:	12 Sep 2022 10:48
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2024 08:00
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/116595

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