‘Left behind’ people, or places? The role of local economies in perceived community representation
‘Left behind’ people, or places? The role of local economies in perceived community representation
Modern economics attributes importance to spatial inequality: yet in studying discontent with politics, existing research has mostly neglected local contexts and attitudes people hold about them. I use British Election Study data to investigate the factors leading people to believe their community is ignored by the political process. Firstly, real economic contexts play a role, since residents of low-income communities tend to take more negative views about how well their community is represented. Secondly, negative perceptions of the local economy are associated with more negative views of community representation, whereas equivalent ‘egotropic’ measures of people's personal economic situation have no such effect. Thirdly, I observe a ‘grievance’ effect wherein people are particularly negative about community representation when they believe that the national economy is more successful than that of one's local community.
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Mckay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
1 August 2019
Mckay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
Mckay, Lawrence
(2019)
‘Left behind’ people, or places? The role of local economies in perceived community representation.
Electoral Studies, 60, , [102046].
(doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2019.04.010).
Abstract
Modern economics attributes importance to spatial inequality: yet in studying discontent with politics, existing research has mostly neglected local contexts and attitudes people hold about them. I use British Election Study data to investigate the factors leading people to believe their community is ignored by the political process. Firstly, real economic contexts play a role, since residents of low-income communities tend to take more negative views about how well their community is represented. Secondly, negative perceptions of the local economy are associated with more negative views of community representation, whereas equivalent ‘egotropic’ measures of people's personal economic situation have no such effect. Thirdly, I observe a ‘grievance’ effect wherein people are particularly negative about community representation when they believe that the national economy is more successful than that of one's local community.
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AAA1-s2.0-S026137941830502X-main
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Accepted/In Press date: 25 April 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 6 June 2019
Published date: 1 August 2019
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Local EPrints ID: 445071
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/445071
ISSN: 0261-3794
PURE UUID: 6636bc49-81ea-4949-b262-f669cc4490d2
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Date deposited: 19 Nov 2020 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:03
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