PREFERENCES, LOYALTY AND PARTY CHOICE

The paper analyses the electorate's voting intentions with respect to the Labour and Conservative parties in Great Britain. Almost all polic y issues are found to be endogenous, i.e. to be influenced by party ch oice within a simultaneous relationship. Socio-economic factors which influence choice through the endogenous policy issues include educatio n, geographical location, age, gender, income and wealth. Parental, pa rticularly maternal, influence is also found to be important and not t o decline with age or education. The paper also highlights the importa nce of competence, rather than policy, issues.