Choosing to Vote and Choosing a Party

Chapter 5 uses data from the Essex CMS pre- and post-election surveys to investigate turnout and party choice in 2015. The turnout analyses study the effects of several predictor variables including political interest, political efficacy, sense of civic duty and social trust as well as differences in voting participation among major sociodemographic groups. Relationships between party choice and key ‘valence politics’ variables such as partisanship, party performance on important issues and party leader images are highlighted. Judgments about leader and party performance had powerful effects on party choice in 2015, with renewed economic optimism doing much to explain electoral support for Prime Minister Cameron and the Conservatives.