The rational choice model evaluates the way in which citizens are most likely to vote based off of their own rational self-interest. Essentially voters are treated as through consumers who will vote for a specific party based off of who they believe will improve their personal experiences the most. A key factor of the model is the perceptions they have on economic competence of certain political parties such as taxation rates. For example, the conservative party is viewed to be much more capable with dealing with public finances during the 2015 general election comparison to the Labour party. Furthermore this was a key aspect of the conservatives success of winning the 2015 general election. This is important in explaining voting behavior as the rational choice model because its key focus is on more short-term factors such as the economic therefore they are more likely to vote based off of what they believe to benefit them at the time based of the different parties manifesto, meaning that the voters part of the rational choice model will back one party in particular continuously. However the rational choice model tends to only really be effective and prevalent in countries where the electorate have higher levels of education and more education. Overall in evaluation some argue that parts of the electorate who follow the rational choice model tend to be more knowledgeable upon different factors and less likely to end up being influenced by their family or by social networking. 

The rational choice model is also based off of people voting for the party which will make them better off. One of the main factors that electorates part of the rational choice model consider most is the state of the economy. The state of the economy is a short-term factor as it changes and alters from every election. For example if the economy is doing well under a specific party it would only be rational for the voter to vote for the party who is responsible and in charge of the economy that is doing so well. This is important as politicians are able to use this to their advantage. For example both Gordan Brown and Tony Blair who were both accused of making a pre-election boom. Therefore if people have sitting money or businesses they are more confident if government are keeping employment steady then more likely to vote for the incumbent in order to keep the economy going well. The model also assume that people are motivated by money and the possibility of making as much money as possible which has then allowed the construction of formal and predictive models of human behavior. This is important as due to the theory of this model parties are having to work much harder in order to try and secure modern voters support due to voters becoming less attached to political parties creating “floating voters”. However it could be argued that the rational choice voting model is rather relevant as people commonly will vote for the parties which bets suits them and that will benefit them the most, as this model promotes the voting behavior that is influenced by a combination of the parties track record, election manifesto and the party’s track record and players. Overall the rational choice model helps to explain voting behaviors as those part of the model are less likely to vote off of class, age, ethnicity, or gender but instead to vote for who will benefit them and their family the most. 

All of this considered younger voters are less likely to be influenced by parties whose key focuses are based on elderly care, pensions, and childcare. Instead they are more likely to be motivated who has policies that will impact their immediate lives such as helping to buy property or university tuition fees, instead of what may impact them in the future. However as their lives change and things begin to settle down their voting principles or motivations may change as well. This is important because if an individual lives in an area of high crime, unemployment, or immigrants these factors could sway and impact the way they decide to vote , this is because they will want to find a political party which specifically targets their issues and what they want rectified about their community. There has recently been an increase in ‘catch all’ parties which has led to emphasis on issues, campaigns, leadership, and competence. Many have argued that this is a positive thing as it has led to an increase in independent voting. For example in during the 2015 UK general election campaign 34% of the voters said that they might change their vote before election day in comparison to the 1992 general election where only 18% said they may change their vote showing a colossal increase.  However specific studies may have overestimated the impacts in which the media influence due to individuals tendency to try and seek out information that agrees with their preexisting views. Overall the rational choice model is able to explain voting behavior through is sizeable pros and cons. It has been proven multiple times that people will vote for who and what will benefit them the mist yet they cannot make rational choices based off of nay biased information, therefore for the rational choice model to work effectively it relies on the public having unbiased mass media and to have a well versed politically aware society.