Voter decision-making in a context of low political trust: The 2016 UK EU Membership Referendum
Voter decision-making in a context of low political trust: The 2016 UK EU Membership Referendum
Using volunteer writing for Mass Observation, we explore how British citizens decided whether to leave the EU. The 2016 referendum was the biggest decision made by the British electorate in decades, but involved limited voter analysis. Many citizens did not have strong views about EU membership in early 2016. The campaigns did not help to firm up their views, not least because so much information appeared to be in dispute. Voters, often characterised as polarised, were reluctant and uncertain. Many citizens took their duty to decide seriously, but were driven more by hunch than careful analysis. In 2016, voters reacted against elites they did not trust at least as much as they embraced the ideas of trusted elites. This contrasts with the 1975 Referendum on the Common Market, when the vote was driven by elite endorsement. In low-trust contexts, voters use cues from elites as negative rather than positive stimulus.
EU Referendum, Mass Observation, elite cues, political trust, voter decision-making
106-124
Clarke, Nicholas
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Jennings, William
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Moss, Jonathan T
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Stoker, Gerard
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
5 May 2021
Clarke, Nicholas
4ed65752-5210-4f9e-aeff-9188520510e8
Jennings, William
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Moss, Jonathan T
e5478a0e-3666-4d70-84ed-dc4bba11784d
Stoker, Gerard
209ba619-6a65-4bc1-9235-cba0d826bfd9
Clarke, Nicholas, Jennings, William, Moss, Jonathan T and Stoker, Gerard
(2021)
Voter decision-making in a context of low political trust: The 2016 UK EU Membership Referendum.
Political Studies, 71 (1), .
(doi:10.1177/00323217211003419).
Abstract
Using volunteer writing for Mass Observation, we explore how British citizens decided whether to leave the EU. The 2016 referendum was the biggest decision made by the British electorate in decades, but involved limited voter analysis. Many citizens did not have strong views about EU membership in early 2016. The campaigns did not help to firm up their views, not least because so much information appeared to be in dispute. Voters, often characterised as polarised, were reluctant and uncertain. Many citizens took their duty to decide seriously, but were driven more by hunch than careful analysis. In 2016, voters reacted against elites they did not trust at least as much as they embraced the ideas of trusted elites. This contrasts with the 1975 Referendum on the Common Market, when the vote was driven by elite endorsement. In low-trust contexts, voters use cues from elites as negative rather than positive stimulus.
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Accepted/In Press date: 26 February 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 May 2021
Published date: 5 May 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by two awards from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): ‘Popular Understandings of Politics in Britain, 1945-2016’ (ES/L007185/1), and ‘TrustGov: Trust and Trustworthiness in National and Global Governance’ (ES/S009809/1).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
Keywords:
EU Referendum, Mass Observation, elite cues, political trust, voter decision-making
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Local EPrints ID: 447394
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/447394
ISSN: 0032-3217
PURE UUID: 6e5312ed-4279-43ab-b70b-87f036004fdb
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Date deposited: 10 Mar 2021 17:43
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:27
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Jonathan T Moss
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