Justin Fisher

The impact of constituency campaigning in the 2001 general election

Among the most interesting developments in British elections during the 1990s was the increased attention given to constituency campaigning by the major parties. Having been eclipsed by television and the national campaign since the 1960s, and consistently downgraded in importance by academic analysts, local campaigning was revitalized. There were a number of reasons for this, including the development of personal computers, the campaigning possibilities opened up by telephone canvassing and an increasingly professional approach to campaigning on the part of staff at party headquarters. The revival of the parties’ enthusiasm for constituency campaigning was matched by, and in part also encouraged by, renewed interest on the part of academics whose work significantly revised the prevailing orthodoxy about the impact of local campaigning. Far from being a ‘ritual’, undertaken by party workers out of habit, a series of studies by three separate groups of researchers provided clear and persuasive evidence that local campaigning affected election outcomes. Measuring the strength of campaigns in various ways, Seyd and Whiteley, Johnston, Pattie and colleagues, and Denver and Hands demonstrated that in recent elections variations across constituencies in the intensity of campaigns mounted by the parties were associated with variations in their electoral performance (see, for example, Denver and Hands, 1997, 1998; Denver, Hands and Henig, 1998; Johnston, Pattie and Fieldhouse, 1995; Whiteley and Seyd, 1994). There are some areas of disagreement between these research teams on whether Conservative campaigning has been as effective as that of the other major parties, for example, and on whether campaigns by incumbent parties were as effective as those of challengers but there is substantial agreement on the central point: at least as far as Labour and Liberal Democrats are concerned, constituencies which mount strong campaigns generally achieve better results than those whose campaigns are weaker.

Party expenditure and electoral prospects: a national level analysis of Britain

Abstract The effectiveness of campaign spending is a hotly contested issue. Much of that debate concentrates upon predetermined or assumed campaign periods. Yet, in a party and electoral system such as Britain, parties are continually campaigning. Party expenditure may therefore have a constant and cumulative effect. This article examines whether increased party spending at the national level is electorally significant. It analyses annual data from 1959 to 1994 and concludes that there is insufficient consistent evidence wholly to support this proposition.

Party Membership and Campaign Activity in Britain The Impact of Electoral Performance

The article examines the impact of electoral results on party membership and activity. Previous studies have focused on the long-term effects of electoral success or failure, suggesting that they may produce a spiral of demobilization or mobilization. The article shows that the dramatic change of electoral fortunes experienced by British parties at the 1997 general election broke this spiral, with the outcome leading to significant changes in the health and activity of local parties. It is concluded that dramatic election results can have significant implications for party organization.

Comparative Party Finance Reform The Cases of France and Britain

In Britain, the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act has revolutionized the regulation of party finance after several half-hearted failures at attempted reform. In France, a series of high-profile corruption scandals in the 1980s and 1990s provoked a bout of ‘legislative incontinence’ – resulting in over eight laws in seven years, which profoundly transformed the regime regulating party finance. The comparative analysis of reforms in each country presented here questions the utility of crude ‘constitutional engineering’ theories, and the notion of party system ‘cartelization’ by major parties, neither of which offers a wholly convincing account of the paths of reform in Britain and France. It explores the use of new institutionalist theories as a comparative framework and concludes that these provide a cogent explanation for the alternative paths taken by each country with party finance regulation.

Small kingdoms and crumbling organizations: Examining the variation in constituency party membership and resources

The ‘revisionist school’ of party campaigning in Britain has successfully demonstrated the importance of party members (see, for example, Denver and Hands, 1997; Johnston and Pattie, 1995; and Seyd and Whiteley, 1992). We have, however, much less information about the size and resources of local constituency parties. This article reports data collected during the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s investigations into party finance. The aim of the survey was to gain an impression of the resources and expenditure of local parties in a manner similar to the investigations undertaken during the Houghton Committee’s investigations in the 1970s. The article then analyses predictors of local party strength.

Professionalism and the Millbank Tendency: The Political Sociology of New Labour's Employees

This article analyses party employees, one of the most under-researched subjects in the study of British political parties. We draw on a blend of quantitative and qualitative data in order to shed light on the social and political profiles of Labour Party staff, and on the question of their professionalisation. The latter theme is developed through a model derived from the sociology of professions. While a relatively limited proportion of party employees conform to the pure ideal-type of professionalism, a considerably greater number manifest enough of the core characteristics of specialisation, commitment, mobility, autonomy and self-regulation to be reasonably described as ‘professionals in pursuit of political outcomes’.

Next Step: State Funding for the Parties?

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 marked the most comprehensive and radical overhaul of British party finance for over 100 years. It instituted reforms in many areas, with the notable exception of the comprehensive extension of state funding for political parties. However, despite the radicalism of the Act, questions have already arisen as to whether further state funding should occur. This article argues that in order to examine the case for more comprehensive state funding, policy–makers need to look beyond the current calls and make a decision by evaluating several criteria on the basis of empirical evidence rather than assumptions. First, however, it is worth outlining the stage we are at presently by summarising the new Act, looking at its impact to date and examining the claims made in recent episodes which have led to calls for more comprehensive state funding of political parties.

Constituency Campaigning in 2010

The importance and electoral impact of campaigning at constituency level is now widely accepted. A variety of different research teams have repeatedly demonstrated the electoral benefits of well-organised and intense election campaigns at constituency level in Britain, despite using different methodological approaches and measures of campaign strength (see, for example, Denver et al., 2003; Fieldhouse and Cutts, 2008; Pattie et al., 1995; Whiteley and Seyd, 1994). Fisher and Denver (2008) have also shown how the campaign at constituency level has become increasingly modernised. Modernisation — the utilisation of devices such as telephones and computers — has become core to campaigning, becoming more prevalent than traditional-style campaigning (though not necessarily matching the latter’s electoral benefits) (Fisher and Denver, 2009).

Is all campaigning equally positive? The impact of district level campaigning on voter turnout at the 2010 British general election

Comparative literature suggests that campaigning efforts impact positively, both in terms of mobilization and turnout. Effects are not uniform. They may be affected by the electoral system, the electoral circumstances and the effectiveness of party management. Studies of district level (constituency) campaigning in Britain have identified two important trends. First, that effective targeting is a core component of a successful district campaign strategy and that parties have become better at targeting resources. However, a question has arisen as to whether increasingly ruthless partisan targeting by parties could have detrimental effects on overall levels of turnout. Second, they have shown how campaign techniques are continuously being modernized but that more traditional labour-intensive campaigning tends to produce stronger electoral payoffs. This article considers three questions in respect of the impact of district level campaigns on turnout: whether the combined campaign efforts of the three principal parties in Britain are associated with higher levels of turnout; whether the different campaigning styles of parties affect levels of turnout equally; and whether the campaigning efforts of different parties have differential effects on turnout and whether intense partisan targeting impacts upon turnout overall. We show that while campaigning boosts turnout, the impact varies by campaign technique and by party.

Constituency Campaigning in 2005: Ever More Centralization?

Over the last fifteen years or so, despite using different methodological approaches and empirical indicators, three different research teams have consistently demonstrated that in general Elections well-organised and intense election campaigns at constituency level can yield electoral benefits (see, for example Whiteley & Seyd, 1994; Pattie et al., 1995; Denver et al., 2003). This research was originally labelled ‘revisionist’, since the results contradicted the traditional view of the impact of campaigning in British general Elections — namely, that if it was in any way beneficial to the performance of the parties then it was national campaigning that made the difference. Constituency campaigning, it was held, was essentially a sideshow inherited from a previous age. Times have changed, however. Even the most ardent ‘tradition-alist’ now accepts that constituency campaigning, to some extent at least, yields payoffs. The ‘revisionist’ school has now become the mainstream.