Chapter 7 'Class and Politics’ _ Justin Chou E.C.

Chapter 7 of L&C ‘Class and Politics’ discusses the extent to which class inequalities can affect national politics. Authors Jeff Manza and Clem Brooks provide a model to explain how and when class matters in politics. They claim that voting behavior is dependent on three mechanisms: economic interests, group identities, and social networks.

Voters may cast their ballots according to they economic standing in relation to the nation as a whole. Those in the same income groups are likely to have similar financial concerns and interests that may act as a foundation for a specific voting group. Economic models of voting behavior are not enough, however, as many political issues span across economic lines. Group identities are also important in determining how a group will vote as, “subjective identification with a class or class-based social group can reinforce, or in some cases produce, a certain kind of class-linked behavior.” (Pg 222). Finally, a social network’s involvement can expose can reinforce the political views of the network on an individual.

Some individuals may argue that class is to vague to categorize, making Manza and Brooks’ argument invalid. Those who make this argument fail to realize that the political spectrum is as diverse and cross-cutting as social class. Class may influence politics but it will not act as a fail-proof indicator of how an individual will vote. The greatest indicator of how someone will vote is based on how his parents cast their ballots. While we can predict how an individual will vote based on his background and his relative class, we can only use these tools to speculate how social class can affect national politics.