Jorgen Rasmussen

The Influence of Ideology on British Labour MPs in Voting on EEC Issues

This research examines the extent to which ideological concerns motivated the voting of British Labour MPs from 1974 to 1979 on 12 contentious divisions concerning the Common Market. Guttman analysis of voting patterns demonstrated that the divisions constituted a single scale, implying an underlying ideological structure. Regression techniques determined the extent of the association between two dimensions of ideology-extremism and coherence-and three independent variables: Tribune Group membership, Government membership, and constituency location. While extremism in Labour MP voting was a function of ideology, coherence was more closely associated with the institutional variable of Government membership. Ideology proved to be less influential than had been anticipated at least in part because it affected votes on administrative details less than it did those on general principles.

WOMEN CANDIDATES IN BRITISH BY‐ELECTIONS: A RATIONAL CHOICE INTERPRETATION OF ELECTORAL BEHAVIOUR*

B R I T I S H by-elections long have been regarded as possible indicators of political trends. Only recently, however, has an extensive, systematic study attempted to encompass their results in a theoretical framework. Having examined a number of propositions about electoral behaviour in by-elections, Taylor and Payne concluded that a Downsian rational choice model of electoral behaviour provided a plausible interpretation at the macro level of their findings. While by-elections are of lower saliency to the electorate than are general elections (because they do not alter party control of the Government), none the less, differences in the structure of by-election contests help to make some by-elections appreciably more salient than others and thus to affect patterns of electoral participation. ‘Well aware of the dangers of making inferences about individual behaviour from aggregate data’, Taylor and Payne hoped ‘that survey work will further test some of the implications for individual behaviour which we have proposed on the basis of our analysis. However, we do feel that this analysis has shown that there is much of interest to the political scientist in by-election behaviour.’2 This study does not provide that survey work testing, but rather seeks to replicate Taylor and Payne’s analysis for a type of by-election ignored by them-those in which women are candidates. The aim is to ascertain whether electoral behaviour in this sub-set of by-elections can be interpreted by the rational choice approach with equal plausibility or whether electoral behaviour in these cases departs so markedly from the norm that some other interpretative framework is required. Such an inquiry is worthwhile because it can help to indicate whether the electorate behaves differently when women are candidates, a matter of considerable significance for political equality. Given this significance, i t is worth speculating why Taylor and Payne did not single out for analysis by-elections with women candidates. The number of such contests, while not huge, certainly is sizeable. Women accounted for 5.3