TY - JOUR
T1 - Voter turnout at the British General Election of 1992
T2 - Rational choice, social standing or political efficacy?
AU - Pattie, Charles
AU - Johnston, Ron
PY - 1998/3
Y1 - 1998/3
N2 - Analyses of turnout in British general elections fall broadly into two camps: those based on constituency-level data, and those based on survey data. The former stress the importance of local context, while the latter stress personal characteristics and viewpoints. Underlying both are a range of theories purporting to explain turnout. However, to date, there has been little systematic attempt to analyse turnout in the round. In this paper, we combine survey and constituency data to study the individual and contextual correlates of turnout at the British general election and 1992. Constituency level analyses seem to confirm the importance of local context, though it declined during the 1980s. However, and contrary to analyses which employ constituency data only, while individual electors' decisions on whether or not to turn out are influenced by their personal circumstances, they are not influenced by local context.
AB - Analyses of turnout in British general elections fall broadly into two camps: those based on constituency-level data, and those based on survey data. The former stress the importance of local context, while the latter stress personal characteristics and viewpoints. Underlying both are a range of theories purporting to explain turnout. However, to date, there has been little systematic attempt to analyse turnout in the round. In this paper, we combine survey and constituency data to study the individual and contextual correlates of turnout at the British general election and 1992. Constituency level analyses seem to confirm the importance of local context, though it declined during the 1980s. However, and contrary to analyses which employ constituency data only, while individual electors' decisions on whether or not to turn out are influenced by their personal circumstances, they are not influenced by local context.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032219651&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032219651
SN - 0304-4130
VL - 33
SP - 263
EP - 283
JO - European Journal of Political Research
JF - European Journal of Political Research
IS - 2
ER -