Essay Example on Support for the EU can therefore be conditional on whether or not People

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Another factor that separated those who voted to remain and those who voted to leave are instrumental factors Support for the EU can therefore be conditional on whether or not people believe that the state s membership in the EU can and will serve their own self interests and most of these interests tend to be economic Clarke et al 2017 classify this to be Cost Benefit analysis which can separate the public into winners and losers This in relation to the EU can take different forms The Curtice 2017 literature points out that high economic occupational and educational positions are important because these people are able to make the best use of the EU Those who have high status occupation and have high and significant human capital are able to benefit from the low trade barriers along with the increase of geographical mobility of labour due to the high levels of integration that the EU brings On the contrary those who are in poorly paid jobs have low status and a lack of educational qualifications tend to find themselves competing with others who are in similar low skilled labour fields that have however emigrated from EU member states 



This often causes British citizens to believe that the lack of job opportunities and low wages are due to the increasing competition caused by the EU Because of this variation of how EU integration has affect people it caused a split in the attitudes that cause people to vote leave or remain in the EU referendum High status and well off individuals are therefore more likely to support EU integration and vote remain whilst low status people are likely to oppose it and vote leave This idea presented by Gabel and Palmer 1995 is supported by Curtice s 2017 studies which showed that 78 of those with no educational qualifications voted to leave while 74 of those who had a degree voted to remain also highlighted in the Swales 2016 report 70 of those in social housing provided by local authority or housing association also voted to leave The vote at the referendum showed the economic influence that EU integration has had on the british public Support for EU membership depended on the perceived costs and benefits and increased immigration and an unstable economic record arguably made voters to feel that the costs outweigh the benefits which differs from the belief of the 1975 referendum regarding the same issue


 Finally attitudes and orientations were also shaped by people's views thoughts and evaluations of the institution itself Well informed or not voters have their own perspective s on the EU And since the EU is relatively distant it is the case that people often lack information concerning the institution and therefore rely on proxy measures in order to make their judgements This does however depend on the nature of referendum campaigns that influence how well informed people are and how voters decide to vote which in turn determines what proxy measures are used In cases of lack of information these measures often come from voter s evaluation of the national government and or their opinions formed about the quality of democracy run in the country 


Because of this some people would ve seen the EU referendum as an unimportant occasion as they are unfamiliar with its purpose or role Furthermore the EU referendum would ve been used by some as a protest against the performance of the national government rather than actually express their views on the qualities that relate to the question asked on the ballot paper In this case the vote turns from a first order contest whereby people vote in relation to the matter at hand into a second order contest where people are less informed and therefore vote on considerations that relate to a different tier of government e g like another general election However as they are proxy measurements decisions can be swayed in either direction while some may vote to leave due to lack of information others might see it as reason to stay Hobolt 2016 would also argue that attitudes are formed by cues from political elites such as David Cameron Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage who had varied opinions motivating people to vote to remain or leave and political parties that they support and these are the proxy measures that would be used


Concerning this referendum recommendations provided by the national parties would've been crucial cues as there was a general uniting in the position between the two major parties and their leaders Conservative and Labour who stood to remain influencing the voters to do the same Again these recommendations this could have swayed the vote in both directions especially the votes those who were sceptical of government and thus voting to leave to as a revenge scheme The openly divided conservative party during this time could ve also influenced this In accounting for the vote at the British EU referendum it is also important to look at how the campaigns also affected the outcome of the vote One of the most important question to ask when looking at this is why did they remain campaign not prove to be more effective And why did the leave campaign win Also what circumstances allowed the campaign to become more salient in Britain and across the world


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