The rise of the new political agenda?

The paper begins by asking whether the economic issues of the ‘old’ agenda have become a less important basis of voting behaviour in Britain while the non-economic issues of the ‘new’ agenda have become more important. Data from the British Election Surveys, spanning the years 1964 to 1987, suggest that economic issues have not become less important, although voters have become more polarized on nuclear issues (nuclear disarmament and nuclear power). However, their attitudes towards these nuclear issues now correlate more highly with those towards the traditional economic issues of the old agenda and so their net impact on voting has not increased. These results suggest the importance of looking at the role of political parties (and at institutions in general) in shaping attitudes and they cast doubt on the notion that a shift to quality-of-life politics is an inevitable feature of post-industrial society.