THE AUTHOR EVALUATES THE SUCCESS WITH WHICH LABOR AND THE LIBERAL-NATIONAL COALITION IDENTIFIED WITH PARTICULAR CATEGORIES OF VOTERS IN SUCCESSIVE STATE ELECTIONS IN NEW SOUTH WALES IN THE 1980'S. RESULTS INDICATE THAT CLASS AND PRIMARY-VS.-SECONDARY ECONOMIC CLEAVAGES DOMINATED VOTER BEHAVIOR, WITH THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE TWO LARGELY REFLECTING A DECADE OF DIFFERENTIAL SWINGS TOWARD LABOR AND THE COALITION AND BETWEEN METROPOLITAN AND NON-METROPOLITAN ELECTORATES.
If the sources of Australian Democratic support were less clear in the election of 1983, the vote for the Democrats at the 1983 elections has all the hallmarks of a protest vote, attracting fairly equally from both main party groupings. Signs of realignment, of fundamental change to the existing two-party structure of Australian politics, which may have been present in 1977, have not developed.There is an important state sectional effect to the Democratic vote, and this has varied among the states since 1977. This sectional effect provides further evidence for a specifically spatial element to the study of voting bevavior in Australia. (Internat. Polit. Science Assoc.)