Mark Benney - How People Vote

Founded by KARL MANNHEIM

In 18 Volumes

by

MARK BENNEY,
A. P. GRAY and R. H. PEAR

First published in 1956
by Routledge

Reprinted in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

1956 Mark Benney, A. P. Gray and R. H. Pear

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in The International Library of Sociology. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

How People Vote

ISBN0-415-17547-X

Political Sociology: 18 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17820-7

The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes

ISBN 0-415-17838-X

Publisher's Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original
may be apparent

FOREWORD
By Professor W. A. R OBSON

Table

T HE investigation on which the following report has been based was initiated by a grant to the London School of Economics and Political Science by the Elmgrant Trust in 1948, for the purpose of conducting an inquiry into political behaviour. The Governors of the School appointed a committee, of which the late Professor Harold Laski was the original chairman, to supervise the investigation.

On Professor Laski's death I became chairman of the committee, the other members being Professor David Glass, Professor of Sociology in the University of London, Professor M. G. Kendall, Professor of Statistics in the University of London, Mr. Michael Young, Dr. Henry Durant of the British Institute of Public Opinion, Mr. T. Lewis and Mr. Mark Benney.

Mr. Benney was appointed to be Director of the Survey in July 1949. Mr. S. Oreanu acted as his assistant and was later succeeded by Mrs. P. Geiss. Mr. Benney's task was to formulate the criteria for the selection of the area in which the investigation was to be conducted. After careful consideration the committee adopted his recommendation that Greenwich should be the constituency in which political behaviour should be studied intensively.

The investigation was focused on the General Election which took place in February 1950. The method of inquiry-involved sample interviews being made in three successive waves. This part of the work was entrusted to the British Institute of Public Opinion.

The sum of money originally made available by the Elmgrant Trust did not prove sufficient to cover the whole cost of the investigation and further sums were granted by the Department of Sociology and Demographic Research of the London School of Economics and Political Science and by the Governors of the London School of Economics, who also provided accommodation and other facilities for the staff. The British Institute of Public Opinion generously waived their claim to part of the remuneration which was due to them in respect of the work which they had carried out.

In August 1951, Mr. Benney went to the United States to take up a teaching post. Before leaving he had finished the drafts of Chapters One to Five inclusive; but was unable to complete the report. After some delay, the committee decided to appoint other workers in this field to do so. Mr. R. H. Pear and Miss A. P. Gray were willing to step into the breach, and the committee gratefully accepted their help. Miss Gray had excellent qualifications for continuing the work, as she had participated in the Elmira Investigation in America and had done post-graduate work in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University. Mr. Pear, who is a lecturer in Political Science at the London School of Economics, took on general responsibility for seeing that the work was brought to a conclusion, and has himself contributed the introduction. Miss Gray has contributed Chapters Six to Thirteen, together with the appendices A, B, C and D. She has also made a few necessary revisions in the earlier chapters. Mr. Benney subsequently read the entire report and made a number of corrections and comments. The work is thus a composite effort, but the actual writing is mainly attributable to Mr. Benney and Miss Gray.

All the members of the committee have read the typescript of the report.

A great deal of assistance was voluntarily given by nearly a hundred students who reported on various aspects of the political activities which took place in Greenwich during the election campaign. Thanks are due to them for their valuable help.

W ILLIAM A. R OBSON .