The Electoral Class Gap: Working‐Class Non‐Voting on the Rise in Twenty‐First Century Norway

ABSTRACT The growing working‐class disengagement from politics witnessed in Western democracies in recent decades poses a serious threat to democratic legitimacy. Crucial in meeting this challenge is scrutinising arenas that connect disadvantaged groups of the electorate to politics. In this article, I examine class inequality in voting in the egalitarian context of Norway with relatively high levels of political integration. Mapping voting patterns from the 1980s until today, findings indicate a growing class gap and historically high working‐class non‐voting in the twenty‐first century with twice as many workers abstaining compared to in the 1980’s. This decline in voting is evident across all demographic segments of workers and cannot be reduced to structural changes in the working class in this period. Finally, unionisation and to some extent public sector employment are identified as arenas associated with substantially higher levels of working‐class voting, and increasingly so today, indicating that they may play a key role for continued working‐class electoral participation and inclusive democracy in twenty‐first century Norway. Applying a class model that adequately reflects the heterogeneousness of the twenty‐first century working class, I argue that occupational class offers a relational and multidimensional approach to understanding electoral participation disparities, linking social inequality in voting both to politically relevant competences gained through education as well as aspects of occupational life key to democratic integration.