Voting Behaviour: The Valence Model
The theory that voters choose parties based on perceived competence and leadership quality on key issues (especially the economy) rather than on ideological or class loyalty.
Real World
Labour's 1997 landslide is a textbook valence case: Blair successfully portrayed Major's Conservatives as economically incompetent after Black Wednesday (1992), making perceptions of economic competence — not ideology — the decisive factor.
Exam Focus
Name Sanders and Clarke when deploying the valence model; attributing theory to a scholar signals the analytical depth mark schemes reward at A-level.
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