Synopses & Reviews
The study examines and evaluates the campaign techniques that are now employed, and looks in detail at the role of local media and national party organisations. Basing their analysis mainly on a large-scale postal survey of election agents in Britain, the authors have been able to construct a quantitative measure of the strength of the constituency campaigns mounted by the different parties across the country, and to use this measure to assess the effects of local campaigning.
There has been a widespread belief among political commentators and academics - though it has never entirely been accepted by professional campaign organisers or volunteer workers on the ground - that constituency campaigning is merely a ritual which local parties perform, and which makes no difference to election results. This study adds to a growing body of literature contesting this view, and clearly demonstrates that constituency electioneering in Britain does significantly affect how the parties fare.
Synopsis
In this study of grass-roots election campaigning, the authors survey the evolution of campaigning over the past century and describe how the parties organized their constituency campaigns in the 1992 election. They examine and evaluate the campaign techniques used.