3. Campaigns

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the importance of election campaigns in influencing voting behaviour, focusing in particular on: (i) the increasing importance of election campaigns in changing people’s mind between the 1950s and today; (ii) the importance of the Conservative and Labour election campaigns in 2017; and (iii) the importance of the ‘ground war’, i.e. local activists knocking on doors and encouraging them to vote, in influence election results, e.g. Stephen Twigg’s victory over Michael Portillo in 1997.

Course

In this course, Professor Peter Dorey (Cardiff University) explores various aspects of voting behaviour. In the first module, we think about voting behaviour in terms of class and partisan alignment and dealignment. After that, in the second module, we think about the importance of individual political issues (e.g. Brexit) and of the figure of the party leader him or herself influencing how people vote. In the third module, we think about the importance of the election campaign itself, before turning in the fourth module to consider the extent to which voting behaviour can be explained by age and gender. In the fifth module, we consider the extent to which the media can be said to influence voting behaviour, before turning in the sixth and final module to think about the issue of electoral turnout, how it has changed over the past fifty years, and some of the reasons for this change.

Lecturer

Prof. Peter Dorey is Professor of British Politics at Cardiff University. His research interests focus on several aspects of British Politics, and public policy, in the period from 1945 to the present day. To date, he has written, co-authored or edited fifteen books on aspects of British politics or public policy, including Comrades in Conflict: Labour, the Trade Unions and 1969's 'In Place of Strife' (2019) and (as co-editor) Choosing Party Leaders: Britain's Conservatives and Labour Compares (2020).