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Deciding Which Party to Vote for Is Now Essentially a Rational Exercise?

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“Deciding which party to vote for is now essentially a rational exercise?” (25 marks)
Over recent years the way people have voted has changed drastically, as the electorate are no longer voting simply for the party in which they have been brought up to support or the party with which they identify themselves with. E.g. People in the North East identifying with the Labour party. This could be caused by class dealignment. This is likely to be the case as evidence shows that there is a great decrease in the percentage of people who vote by party identification. Which has fallen from 45% in 1964 to 10% in 2010, it becoming apparent that voting may be becoming an issue of rational exercise instead of something decided by your upbringing or you socio-economic group.
Past general elections have shown evidence that the party leader and the image they portray to the public is of the most importance, with elections having significant swings based on the image of the party leader. It is often the case that opinion polls also show this and that having a party leader who appeals to the electorate rather than policies will often result in a win in the general election. The fact that a party’s leader’s appearance can affect the outcome of a general election is significant in showing that voting is becoming a rational exercise. It can also be argued that voting is a rational exercise due to voting behaviour patterns during times of economic crisis, the government in power can often lose support due to the blame of these problems. It also allows other parties to see what the electorate want and offer it to them in order to increase their own

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