One Nation's electoral support: Where does it come from, what makes it different and how does it fit?

This paper does three things. First, it offers a critique of the academic l iterature on the One Nation vote, focusing on the limitations of the work o f political geographers and the methodological shortcomings of survey resea rchers. Second, it re-examines data from the 1998 Australian Election Study in order to explore the demographic and attitudinal forces that both drove the One Nation vote and distinguished it from the votes secured by the Lab or Party, the Liberal and National parties and the Australian Democrats; th is highlights the importance of gender, geography and class, of political a lienation and of attitudes to Aborigines and immigration. Third, it suggest s that the basis of One Nation's mobilisation did not lie in concerns about economic insecurity so much as in opposition to 'new class' values, partic ularly around race. In doing so, it challenges common understandings of the Party's constituency and of its distinctiveness.