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Even though operating within a different electoral system, Great Britain is rapidly following in the footsteps of the United States in the area of political communications. Electoral communications, including advertising, have found a place in the British political process. This study seeks to find what place and is based largely on personal interviews with politicians, party officials, broadcast and print journalists, academicians and advertising agency executives. Emphasis is on the marketing and communications efforts of the Conservative Party as the leader in the trend toward American-style campaigning. However, both the Labour Party and SDP/Liberal Alliance are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK general election of 2010 should have been a critical one for women. But it was not to be. Despite all of the main political parties claiming to want more women MPs the increase in their number relative to the 2005 Parliament was just 2.5%. Women remain under-represented numerically in the House of Commons, constituting less than one-quarter of all MPs. The election campaign was largely women free too, as women married to politicians gained more attention than women politicians. Moreover, and despite enhanced inter-party competition over the women's vote—or rather, and more accurately, the votes of middle income mothers, otherwise known as the ‘mumsnet’ vote—women's issues and perspectives were marginalised from the campaign proper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on opinion changes in the U.S., Australia, and Great Britain during an election campaign based from Gallup Polls. It notes political scientists' view that election campaigns have minimal impacts on election outcomes. It concentrates on the voting intention in Great Britain and Australia and the presidential approval in the U.S. It adds that people are now more responsible when voting, with 3 and 5 percent of voters who switch back to their original intentions on election day.

Otto Kirchheimer's well-known diagnosis of 'catch-all' partism in Western Europe rests on an implicit causal argument about the consequences of social change for political parties. This article takes up the causal story underlying Kirchheimer's account and traces its implications for a specific, though central, party activity: campaigning. As Kirchheimer discerned, the transformation of advanced industrial societies radically altered the context of parties' strategic decision-making. In the area of election campaigning, parties confronted heightened incentives to approach the electorate with 'persuasive' rather than more traditional 'mobilizing' appeals and developed a greatly increased demand for reliable information about voter preferences. These shifts, in turn, had consequences for party organization, promoting the centralization and marginalization of individual members Kirchheimer associates with the catch-all party type. Through the lens of campaign change, then, we can observe the causal processes that unite the diverse features Kirchheimer links to his catch-all party -- although our attention is also drawn to ways in which party development has not conformed to Kirchheimer's expectations. This article illustrates these intersecting processes with a discussion of Labour and Conservative campaigns in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy party grassroots constituency organisations play an important part in modern electoral campaigning, especially in marginal seats, and political parties try to concentrate their efforts on those closely contested constituencies. Recent evidence on party fund-raising at a local level shows that the Conservatives have taken considerable strides in supporting their campaign organisations in marginals, and have done so in a way which enhances their long-term campaigning potential there. The party's grassroots organisations are increasingly well-resourced, especially in the seats the Conservatives need to win back if they are to win the next General Election. However, while fund-raising suggests a healthy grassroots where it is needed, party membership data highlights continued problems for the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic minority under-representation in British politics is apparent at both local and national level. This article focuses on the candidate selection procedures of the main parties to assess explanations of under-representation and account for the development of a critique, by the Labour Party, of the 'liberal' paradigm that underpins candidate selection. Labour have developed a positive action strategy to promote women's candidacy. This article contends that the development of such a critique has clear implications for other under-represented groups, such as ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]