EFFECTS OF AUTHORITARIAN AND LIBERTARIAN VALUES ON CONSERVATIVE AND LABOR-PARTY SUPPORT IN GREAT-BRITAIN

While there is strong evidence that a libertarian-authoritarian dimens ion exists in Great Britain, there is only weak evidence that it contr ibuted to the Conservative Party's electoral victories in 1979, 1983, and 1987. The present paper addresses this empirical divergence by pre senting new evidence. Using a multivariate statistical analysis of Bri tish respondents in the 1979-1987 Eurobarometers, the paper estimates the impacts of political values and class-based demographic characteri stics on individual-level support for the Conservative and Labour part ies. The multivariate model is estimated separately for each year in o rder to compare the explanatory variables' effects over time. The pape r's findings demonstrate that authoritarian and libertarian values sig nificantly influenced party support, with the strongest effects occurr ing in 1983 and 1984. In addition, they show that class-based support was negatively correlated with value-based support during 1979-1987.