The rural milieu and voting in Britain

Studies of voting patterns in many liberal democracies suggest that partisan choice in rural areas differs from that in rural areas among people occupying similar social locations. This paper explores why that should be so in Britain and analyses 1983 survey data to test for a rural pattern. The results suggest that among rural voters it is housing tenure rather than occupational class that most disposes people to vote Labour, but that in all voter categories support for Labour is relatively low, suggestive of a 'rural effect'.