Munroe Eagles

Community Cohesion and Voter Turnout in English Parliamentary Constituencies

Voting turnout varies both over time and across space. In Britain there has been a secular trend in the postwar period for decreasing turnout at parliamentary elections (from a high of 84.1 per cent in 1950 to 75.4 percent in 1987, with a low point of 71.8 per cent in 1970). Such temporal variations in turnout are dwarfed in scale, however, by differences in turnout across constituencies at the same election. In the 1970 election, for example, turnout ranged from a low of 44.9 per cent in Stepney to 85.3 per cent in Cornwall North. Though diminished slightly, variation in constituency turnout rates remained significant in the June 1983 election (from a low of 51.8 percent in City of London and Westminster South to a high of 81.1 percent in Leicestershire NW).

Money and Votes in Canada: Campaign Spending and Parliamentary Election Outcomes, 1984 and 1988

The role of campaign spending in determining patterns of party support in Canadian federal elections is incompletely understood. While commendable in applying appropriate estimation techniques, most extant research at the federal level has relied on models that are seriously underspecified. This paper attempts to assess the impact of spending on party support at the 1984 and 1988 federal elections in Canada by developing multivariate models that incorporate a range of socio-demographic and political variables. The results offer convincing confirmation for arguments that campaign spending by local parties contributes significantly to explaining patterns of voter support.

The Effectiveness of Local Campaign Spending in the 1993 and 1997 Federal Elections in Canada

Recent studies of the effects of campaign spending by political parties and candidates at elections in Canada and elsewhere have established the importance of local constituency campaigns. However, particular claims to measure the effects of campaign spending on the vote have been questioned on methodological grounds. This article revisits the question of whether local spending matters in Canadian federal elections. Responding to some criticisms of earlier work, this analysis presents the results of two parallel regression analyses (the first employing two–stage least squares estimation, the second using three–stage least squares techniques) of the effects of local spending in the 1993 and 1997 elections. The results offer strong confirmation that comparatively greater local spending by candidates enhances their vote shares, and diminishes that of rivals, albeit to different degrees for different parties and elections.

The Political Ecology of Campaign Contributions in Canada: A Constituency-Level Analysis

This article explores the constituency dimension of campaign financing in the 1984 and 1988 federal elections in Canada. The analysis uncovers considerable variability in the capacity of constituency parties to attract campaign donations. These variations appear to be related to the past local and regional strengths of parties, to the expected closeness of the current contest, and to whether incumbents are running for re-election. Multivariate analyses suggest that these political variables have a broadly consistent impact on fund-raising after other features of the socio-economic diversity of constituencies have been controlled.

The geography of Canadian parties' electoral campaigns: leaders' tours and constituency election results

Abstract Party leaders are pivotal figures in election campaigns. Leadership effects on the voting decisions of individuals have long been studied using national-level survey designs. However, the potential for leaders to effect local constituency outcomes through strategic campaign visits has received little attention. Using campaign tour logs for the leaders of Canada’s five major parties in the recent 2000 federal election, we explore the geography and the strategy of leaders’ tours. Mapping the spatial strategy that governs which communities are visited, and which are not, we can assess the local electoral effects of tours. Our results show inter-party differences in the strategic deployment of a leader, and in the impact of a leaders’ visit on local electoral patterns. Our results demonstrate that leaders’ visits in most cases register a positive local effect, net of other influences.

GIS and redistricting

The evolving technology known as geographic information systems (GIS) and the changing political environment have transformed the way in which electoral maps are drawn. In particular, technological advances have enabled electoral cartographers to consider a wider variety of information and to produce maps that optimize various desired features more efficiently than ever before. By the same token, amendments to the Voting Rights Act (1965, 1982) and a number of subsequent court decisions have complicated the process in a number of ways. This brief overview provides a general introduction to these issues and discusses the contribution of the three articles that follow. It concludes that the next round of redistricting, following the 2000 census, will be an exciting and contentious project.

Organizing Across the Canada–US Border: Binational Institutions in the Niagara Region

This article explores the experience of seven grassroots cross-border organizations that have formed in the binational Niagara region. It begins by introducing the binational Niagara region and noting the comparative paucity and weakness of cross-border institutions in the area. It then identifies a number of grass-roots organizational initiatives that in some formal way straddle the Niagara River – initiatives that scholars have typically neglected. Based on interviews with leaders in these organizations, I describe the various governance structures and processes that these organizations have adopted to accommodate Canadian and American interests. I then turn to a discussion of some of the challenges facing these organizations that stem from their binational nature. Two in particular – resulting (1) from the securitization of the border since 2001 and the recent implementation of the WHTI secure document requirements, and (2) from the problems associated with fragmented political environments on both sides of the border – are discussed, and a rough assessment of their relevance to the seven organizations is given. To varying degrees, these factors constrain the opportunities for existing cross-border institutions, and they serve as deterrents for the formation of more such entities. The information uncovered in these inquiries provides a snapshot of the uncertain progress toward the formation of a borderland region centered around the Niagara River in southern Ontario and western New York.

Party Activity across Electoral Cycles: The New Brunswick Party System, 1979-1994

Political parties in Canada oscillate between periods of inter-election quiescence and active electoral year mobilization. This article moves beyond vote share accounts of party system change by using the financial accounts of local associations and central party organizations to track these patterns in the New Brunswick party system. The analysis covers several electoral cycles encompassing government turnover and the rise of a flash party. Ecological models rooted in electoral district-level data (including measures of party activity based on their annual financial records, census data describing the electoral districts and conventional aggregate electoral data) are developed to provide a more nuanced account of a party and party system change than those based on simple election results. The findings demonstrate that even in a period of remarkable electoral flux, party activity and success appears to be rooted in diverse constituency social and political contexts.

Community cohesion and working-class politics: workplace—residence separation and labour support, 1966–1983

Abstract One frequently advanced explanation for the mounting electoral difficulties of the British Labour Party in recent years has been ‘the decline of cohesive traditional working-class communities’. This paper assesses this explanation by examining the empirical connection between the proximity of homes and workplaces in communities and the level of Labour voting. Regression analysis using census and election data for English constituencies shows that community cohesion significantly affected Labour support in each of the four elections analysed, though not in the direction expected on the basis of contemporary interpretations of Labours electoral decline. Cohesive communities tended to support Labour less than non-cohesive communities. This effect increased over time. Several alternative explanations for these unexpected findings are considered in the concluding section.

Explaining Canada–US Differences in Attitudes Toward Crime and Justice: An Empirical Test of S.M. Lipset’s Account

ABSTRACT Despite cultural similarities between Canada and the United States, some observers contend that significant differences remain in attitudes and values between the two countries. For example, Lipset has observed that “efforts to distinguish Canada and the United States almost invariably point to the greater respect for law and order and those who uphold it north of the border”. Lipset’s argument is that Canadian values are based on the nation’s founding principles of “Peace, Order and Good Government” while American values stem from the country’s revolutionary origins and are based on the values of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” We test Lipset’s observations, and those of some of his critics, using parallel surveys administered to university students in two institutions on either side of the Canada–US border. This is a very demanding test of his arguments so the supportive evidence we uncover for his arguments is significant.