THE ROLE OF REGIONAL CONTEXT IN VOTING - EVIDENCE FROM THE 1992 BRITISH GENERAL-ELECTION

Recent British General Election results have produced an increasingly distinct regional geography of the vote, with the Conservatives perfor ming well in the south of the country and Labour doing so in the north . However, accounting for this geography has proved controversial. Som e analysts suggest that where voters live has become increasingly impo rtant in influencing haw they vote. In this model, voters pick up poli tical cues from their local contexts which may lead them to reassess t heir political allegiances. But this view is not universally accepted, other analysts argue that it is mainly individual factors (including class, background and personal circumstances) which affect voters' dec isions. For them, any apparent regional effect is an artefact of the t endency for people from similar backgrounds to live in similar areas. In this paper we reassess the evidence. By analysing data from the 199 2 British Election Study (BES), we show that regional context is indee d an important feature of British voting behaviour. Far from being an artefact, it is an important influence on voters' political thinking a t a variety of levels, from their political attitudes and ideologies t hrough to their votes.