Class voting

[3] In their investigation into the impact of social class on voting behavior during the 1940 presidential election, the researchers curated a representative panel and conducted seven rounds of comprehensive questioning.

Moreover, a noteworthy discovery was the limited deviation from initial choices among the majority of participants, suggesting minimal influence from electoral campaigns on vote selection.

[6] The researchers identified three pivotal variables—economic and social status, religion, and place of residence—that played a crucial role in shaping political preferences.

The Alford Index operationalizes class voting by computing the disparity between the percentages of workers and non-workers casting ballots for left-wing candidates.

In instances where all workers align with left-wing politics and none of the non-workers do so, the Alford Index achieves its maximum value of 100%, indicating a perfect class vote.

Conversely, if the proportion of left-leaning voters among workers and non-workers is equal, the index yields a value of 0%, signifying the absence of a discernible class vote.

Contemporary scholars often reference a classification system that was inspired by the Alford Index, which was developed by John Goldthorpe and Robert Erikson in 1992.

In model has its origin in the book The People’s Choice (1944), by Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet-Erskine, the pivotal in the study of electoral sociology in the United States.

Investigating the 1940 presidential election, the researchers found a significant link between individuals' social backgrounds and their voting preferences.

This shift is characterized by a general decline in voter turnout among the working class in Western Europe and a significant educational voting gap.