Abstract
In this chapter I identify the fundamental ideological dimensions that define political competition in Britain. I do this by analysing the opinions of voters on a wide range of issues from two data sources. The analysis shows that the main dimensions of political competition include an economic and a cultural dimension, as the literature predicts. The cultural dimension is similar to Hooghe et al.’s (2002) notion of TAN/GAL, but also incorporates issues of immigration and EU integration. Looking at the mean positions of the voters of all significant parties in Britain with respect to these dimensions, I find that the gap between party voters is just as great along the cultural dimension as it is on the economic dimension. I also find that the cultural dimension is even more dependent on social structure than the economic dimension, as it appears to be strongly predicated on education, age and geographical location.
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Notes
- 1.
For an eloquent example of this discourse, see Mhairi Black’s maiden speech of 14 July 2015, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZAmhB55_-k, accessed 10 July 2018.
- 2.
YouGov, “Scots are to the left of the rest of Britain on almost every issue”. Available at https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/03/22/scotland-are-left-rest-uk-almost-every-issue/, accessed 21 May 2018.
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Wheatley, J. (2019). Patterns of Political Competition. In: The Changing Shape of Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03940-0_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03940-0_3
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