CLASS-CONSCIOUSNESS AND POLITICAL-CHANGE - VOTING AND POLITICAL-ATTITUDES IN THE BRITISH WORKING-CLASS, 1964 TO 1970

Most research suggests that changes in political preferences and publi c opinion are similar for all social groups. I investigate the possibi lity that prior views of the world, or ''ideology, '' affect responses to new information, and hence changes in opinion. I focus on one type of ideology, levels of class consciousness, using data from opinion s urveys of British manual workers in the election years of 1964, 1966, and 1970. Results from a latent class model indicate that changes in p olitical and economic opinions vary with degree of class consciousness . Workers who identified with the working class but held negative atti tudes toward unions became considerably more pessimistic about economi c conditions and the policies of the Labour Party. This group's behavi or may represent either instrumentalism or a perceived conflict betwee n the interests of the working class and the interests of society as a whole. These results cast doubt on conventional views of the relation ship between workers' economic interests and support for parties of th e left.