Political Voting Norms By John Marshall: Article Analysis

Interestingly a publication made by John Marshall in 2016, came to my attention as it argued that education and political voting habit have a correlation. (Marshall,2016).Marshall argued that from his research people in Britain who gain further education are more likely to vote for the Conservative Party in election. This once again goes to show the strong link between the individual and society as the extent to which somebody is educated is an individual matter, however voting habits is society’s matter as it has implications on the mass. Marshall states, “I provide evidence suggesting that education’s effects operate according to a Meltzer and Richard (1981) distributive logic. By increasing an individual’s income, education increases support

Symbolic interactionism suggests the idea that people act based on how they perceive others and their intentions. “Central to SI’s view of the human subject is the idea that everyone is a meaning-making person. Human events and objects must be understood and interpreted. Even the situation to which people respond is a matter of interpretation, as ethno methodologists and cognitive sociologists have shown.” (Gusfield, J.,2003). According to symbolic interactionists, identity is an idea that is socially constructed because beliefs are moulded through opinions and other people’s perceptions about them. In this case society moulds the individual, once again showcasing the close link between the

“There is no conflict between society and ‘the’ individual between the welfare of society and the welfare of ‘the’ individual. The quality of a society is the quality of its members. There is no social morality that is not individual morality and no mind that is not individual mind.”(Maclver, 1914). Maclver explains that the individual and society work in synchronisation and a single individual has control over what is enforceable in society. The individual can make changes and construct the working of a society to make it more efficient. For example when we look at the education system in the United Kingdom, the Government has decided on societies’ behalf that education is compulsory until the age of 18. However there are many options available of what we can study whether it is various subjects within academics or even a form of apprenticeship or traineeship. An individual has the freedom to make choices in which path they take, therefore is able to shape their own society. The individual has controls over their thoughts and what they choose believe