The politics of England: national identities and political Englishness
The politics of England: national identities and political Englishness
Over two decades, voters who emphasised their English identity played an influential role in the rise of UKIP and the Brexit Party, the Brexit referendum and the election of Conservative governments—a trend overlooked in most electoral analyses. Using twenty years of data from the British Election Study and British Social Attitudes Survey, as well as recent original surveys, the article explores the evolving political behaviour of national identity groups. It finds that ‘more English’ and ‘more British’ identifiers increasingly voted for different parties. The analysis also identifies growing differences in the demographics, social values and immigration attitudes of these groups, which descriptive and regression analysis suggests may underpin these divergent political behaviours. However, a fuller understanding of electoral behaviour must take account of ideas of national democracy and sovereignty. The electoral impact of both the characteristics of English identifying voters and ideas associated with English identity constitute ‘political Englishness’.
Englishness, national identity, realignment, sovereignty, values, voting behaviour
613-624
Denham, John
9cdb8204-8550-4677-80db-84f35bc7da52
Mckay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
1 October 2023
Denham, John
9cdb8204-8550-4677-80db-84f35bc7da52
Mckay, Lawrence
4ecf2fd8-3fbf-4a3c-9c22-6856fc1a09be
Denham, John and Mckay, Lawrence
(2023)
The politics of England: national identities and political Englishness.
The Political Quarterly, 94 (4), .
(doi:10.1111/1467-923X.13313).
Abstract
Over two decades, voters who emphasised their English identity played an influential role in the rise of UKIP and the Brexit Party, the Brexit referendum and the election of Conservative governments—a trend overlooked in most electoral analyses. Using twenty years of data from the British Election Study and British Social Attitudes Survey, as well as recent original surveys, the article explores the evolving political behaviour of national identity groups. It finds that ‘more English’ and ‘more British’ identifiers increasingly voted for different parties. The analysis also identifies growing differences in the demographics, social values and immigration attitudes of these groups, which descriptive and regression analysis suggests may underpin these divergent political behaviours. However, a fuller understanding of electoral behaviour must take account of ideas of national democracy and sovereignty. The electoral impact of both the characteristics of English identifying voters and ideas associated with English identity constitute ‘political Englishness’.
Text
Political Quarterly - 2023 - Denham - The Politics of England National Identities and Political Englishness
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 7 September 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 September 2023
Published date: 1 October 2023
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Political Quarterly Publishing Co. Ltd.
Keywords:
Englishness, national identity, realignment, sovereignty, values, voting behaviour
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Local EPrints ID: 483252
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483252
ISSN: 0032-3179
PURE UUID: aab819d3-d22e-4ebd-be30-715223fb2a27
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Date deposited: 26 Oct 2023 17:03
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:58
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