Résumé

What contributes to the formation of working class identity? A body of evidence from social psychology has shown that identification with any social group entails a cognitive component: people are more likely to identify with a group if they are similar to its prototypical member. We apply this idea to the context of early 20th century UK and show that heterogeneity in regional cultures combined with internal migration played an important role in shaping class identity. Relying on a new measure of cultural heterogeneity in Britain and a gravity-based instrumental variables strategy for predicting the mix of migrants in a location, we show that a higher representation of one’s ancestral origin in the working class drove significantly higher working class identification. Locations that received heterogeneous migrants from culturally distant regions thus developed weaker class identities and were less likely to support the newly emerging Labour Party. This could explain why extending the franchise did not lead to the triumph of Labour or other working class movements, as expected at the time and predicted by canonical political economy models (Meltzer and Richard 1979, Acemoglu and Robinson 2006), but rather to the success of the Conservative Party. Our results contribute new evidence linking the social and psychological determinants of group identity to the emergence of political cleavages.

Référence

Vasiliki Fouka (Stanford University), « Migration and the making of the English middle class », IAST General Seminar, Toulouse : IAST, 1 avril 2025, 11h30–12h30, salle Auditorium 4 (First floor - TSE Building).