SUBURBIA AND VOTING BEHAVIOR IN THE LONDON METROPOLITAN AREA

ABSTRACT

Widely noted spatial regularities in political activity include suburbancentral city differences in party preference and political participation. The spatial regularities can be found both in the United States and in Britain. In the London metropolitan area both party preference and participation are related to suburbanism in particular, and to other socio-economic dimensions in general, derived from a factor analysis. A causal model which attempts to evaluate the relative significance of suburbanism and other socio-economic dimensions in explaining the geography of party! preference and participation suggests that while both aspects of political activity are directly related to suburbanism, suburban-central city differences also operate indirectly through other dimensions to effect geographical differences. Suburbanism probably affects party preference in two ways: conversion of erstwhile central city Labor party supporters and immigration of Conservatives from the central city.