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Little is known about the characteristics of respondents and non-respondents to electoral surveys, which is an issue of growing concern as survey response rates fall. Using a procedure that allows all of the addresses sampled in the 2005 British Election Study to be located within the small areas defined for data dissemination with the 2001 census, as well as relevant electoral areas, this study reports on ecological analyses of where those who responded and those who declined to be interviewed lived. It finds that although certain types of area were underrepresented in the sampling procedure and others were over-represented, there were only slight differences in the geographies of survey respondents and refusers: people living in low-density areas were slightly more likely to respond; those living in high-density areas with high proportions of their populations suffering from socio-economic disadvantage and with high levels of population mobility were slightly more likely to refuse to participate in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction we review the failures, and the successes, of the 2005 UK General Election campaign from a marketing perspective. Ostensibly this was a flawed campaign. It neither inspired anyone nor gave rise to the kinds of resonant images, great rhetorical moments or unscripted events which have posted some elections in time past to the realm of folk mythology. Our suggestion is that an apparently dull campaign nevertheless reasserted significant old truths and surfaced interesting new ones. It may not have represented a radical and important shift. But this election should not be ignored because its conclusions seemed foregone and its rhetoric and imagery remained unremarkable and even banal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 2001 General Election result, which uncannily resembled that of 1997. Thus, it analyses the results of the 2001 Election in Great Britain while also examining the election outcomes found in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It views opinion poll data in the medium to short term campaign to gauge the relevant standing of the parties in the run up to the 7th June contest. Importantly, it offers a critical examination of what the Electoral commission perceived to be the crucial aspect of the 2001 Election, 'turnout', and cautions against the siren voices that demand immediate action to address the big drop in the number of voters actually going to the polls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to examine how well the political parties have targeted women and identifies political marketing as a means of creating voter satisfaction. It starts by examining the differences and changes in the number of women MPs following the general election in June 2001 compared with the outcome of the election in 1997. Voter behaviour and the lack of female role models in politics are then considered. The use of market segmentation is discussed. The paper concludes that political parties need to utilise segmentation in a more sensitive way to attract the silent majority of women and ensure their political success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the importance of building the brand image of parties and leaders in modern day politics. Firstly, the appropriateness of branding in the sphere of politics is considered. Then, brand image research on political parties and their leaders is identified and discussed. From this, the advertising (positive and negative), events and celebrity endorsements that affected the June 2001 election are discussed. Finally, some tentative conclusions on political image management are forwarded along with the likely future developments in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on one element of our wider study investigating the 2001 British General Election national advertising, and the attitudes and perceptions of the young British electorate to the campaigns. The discussion presented here explores the strategies and ambitions of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats' 2001 national advertising campaigns. Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews with key members of the three parties advertising agencies; content analysis of the national posters, press and party election broadcasts; and secondary source information e.g. coverage in the marketing and advertising press, newspaper, radio and TV reporting. A number of issues emerge including the key role of the advertising in agenda setting and agenda control, evidence of media misrepresentation of the central advertising themes, the poor use of the Internet, and the rather limited ambitions for the advertising itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern UK general election campaigns cannot be fully understood without assessing the role of political public relations by the major parties. They seek voter attention and commitment through the three 'P's of policy, personality and presentation. But presentation carries a health risk for democracy: does it illuminate or obscure policy and personality? Monitoring and content analysis of the 2001 election suggests mixed benefits from political PR for politicians, voters and media but one firm conclusion for the latter two groups: making elections an informed and rational choice requires continuous scrutiny to see through the presentational trellis of political PR. Of all PR forms, political PR is the most influential because of its proximity to state and regulatory power: even so, its use in general elections cannot reverse declining electoral participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We outline the history of the UK Liberal Democratic Party (LibDem) and the context of the 2001 UK General Election and show how the strategy for the General Election campaign evolved within the party. The article traces the presentation of Charles Kennedy MP as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, the allocation of campaign resources and key events impacting upon the campaign. Particular consideration is given to the branding aspects of the leader role and the interaction between the party and leader in establishing the public perception of the LibDem brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 1997-2001 the Conservative Party utilised many concepts and techniques from marketing but this yielded little success in the general election. This article explores the story behind this result: the attempts made by the leader William Hague to use political marketing and make the Party more responsive to voters, the obstacles he faced in changing the Conservatives at all levels; the final product they offered to voters in 2001, and the Party's communication efforts in the years before the election and the campaign. Overall, analysis indicates the difficulty but also the importance of marketing political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour's second landslide victory of 2001 seemed inevitable given the almost continuous public support for the government through its first term. This paper considers the ways in which the party attempted to maintain and cultivate the electorate's backing during the last four weeks or 'short' campaign. Perhaps fearing apathy more than the Conservatives Labour launched 'Operation Turnout' in order to mobilise its core supporters. Though this attempt failed to boost electoral participation the party nevertheless achieved another major victory. In this so-called 'apathetic landslide' Labour was able to strategically outmanoeuvre their principal opponents the Conservatives. Interestingly the more telling and potentially compromising criticisms of government policy and party procedure came from sympathisers. These and other points will be examined with recourse to a marketing analysis of the Labour campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the devolution process that started in 1999 was frequently assumed by contemporary commentators and scholars to lead to a fractured relationship with the national centre and a fragmented state as a consequence. However, discourse analysis and policy reviews in relation to spatial planning policies demonstrates that agendas and legislation implemented by central and devolved governments since devolution are characterised by marked similarities in intention and type (albeit with some differences in name and delivery route). In investigating the potential sites and sources of these policy similarities and possible mobilities, and drawing on research data, we suggest that the British Irish Council’s spatial planning task group as one of the potential candidates to be considered as a national policy community or network. Alongside a range of other factors following devolution, this has contributed to development and delivery in one specific policy area that has taken a convergent rather than divergent character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some knowledge is 'explicit': It can be conveyed in words, or formulas, or diagrams. Other forms of knowledge are strictly 'tacit': A person who possesses such knowledge cannot convey it to others using the traditional means of human communication. Unfortunately, our knowledge about management is primarily tacit. Yet Barber asserts that his approach to public management is 'the science of delivery,' which suggests that his knowledge is explicit and thus that his prescriptions are both amazingly effective and should be followed precisely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines changing patterns of voting for parties on the left in the UK and Europe. It shows that while combined support for social-democratic, left and Green parties remains strong, the composition of the left's electorate has radically changed. Increasingly, left parties rely on a coalition of new middle-class voters and traditional and new working-class constituencies. This coalition is relatively cohesive on questions of economic redistribution, but divided on social and cultural issues. Recent instability in Labour's electoral coalition reflects broader structural trends facing left parties across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of political nationalism in the early twenty-first century threatens to subsume the 'progressive dilemma' as identified by David Marquand. The labourist tradition is collapsing culturally, the liberal tradition intellectually. In the face of a new politics of nativism across Europe and America, the labour movement needs to put the debate over the progressive dilemma behind it and find a new source of philosophical inspiration in the English radical tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jeremy Corbyn's election and re-election as Labour leader, together with the emergence of a new Conservative Prime Minister committed to Brexit, has led to renewed speculation about the possibility of a new party appealing to the 'politically homeless' in the centre and centre-left of British politics. This article draws lessons from the SDP experience in the early 1980s. Are the structural conditions more favourable to the progressive centre-left now than they were then? Is there the sociological, electoral and ideological space for a new party? Does first past the post remain an insuperable barrier to an electoral breakthrough? From whom and in what circumstances might the leadership for a new party come? For all the depth of Labour's current problems, a new party seems an unlikely immediate prospect. In 1981, the SDP made a major miscalculation about the irreversibility of Labour's decline. However, the process of fragmentation in British politics seems set to continue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that a return to the history of progressive political thought can help us to think afresh about what a renewed centre-left politics might look like today. The article identifies some significant aspects of this history that attracted little attention in earlier debates over the British progressive tradition-in particular, debates about social ownership, nationalism and distributism. This revisionist history of British progressivism points the way towards some common ideological ground that could provide a starting point for a new dialogue between different 'progressive' political parties and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers contemporary class inequalities and how they might shape a progressive politics in the UK. Drawing on findings from the BBC Class Survey, it outlines changes in the class structure, class mobility and class identities. It is argued that the class structure is increasingly polarised and fragmented, with a wealthy elite, a vulnerable precariat and fragmented middle and working classes in between. Declining upward social mobility is a source of anxiety for middle-class and working-class parents alike. Class identification, especially working-class identification, has weakened over time, although class snobbery is far from dead. Class has changed and the class basis of politics is changing now too. A progressive politics is possible if the political parties of the centre-left appeal to the majority of the electorate rather than one class, acknowledge common concerns and worries and appeal to shared hopes and dreams that straddle class boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do gender quotas reduce the quality of politicians elected to a legislature? For the first time in the literature, this article addresses this question by examining the quality of 'quota women' compared to their non-quota colleagues at three stages of their political career: their electoral performance, their qualifications for political office and their post-election legislative career trajectories. Drawing on the unique case of Britain following the 1997 general election, no significant difference is found between the quality of 'quota women' and their non-quota colleagues. Voters do not punish 'quota women' at the ballot box; 'quota women' are as equally qualified for political office as their colleagues; and the gatekeepers of executive office do not discriminate against 'quota women' in front-bench promotions. Considering this, the article concludes by asking whether the similarity of 'quota women' to their colleagues may actually impact on their capacity to affect transformative substantive representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the Labour governments of 1997–2010, Britain’s economic immigration policy was transformed from a system underpinned by restriction to a comparatively expansive regime. Based on over 50 elite interviews, the article sets out to explain why economic immigration policy shifted so radically, by examining how the organised public and political elites influenced policy and policy change. The article tests Gary Freeman’s client politics model and challenges the claim that sections of the organised public drove the expansionary reforms. In contrast, it is argued that the logic and idea behind the policy reforms were fundamentally underpinned by the Labour Party’s Third Way framework, in particular the Party’s business-friendly approach and its fixation with globalisation. The article demonstrates that immigration policy-making in Britain is an elite-driven pursuit, and that parties, and the ideas which configure them, shape immigration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examine the link between public opinion and policy in the UK over the past 30 years. We show that public views about immigration are responsive to changes in immigration levels and differences between migrant groups, and that policy-makers are sensitive to these changes. Policy-makers look to respond to the public mood on migration, but face growing constraints in doing so. The interaction of public opinion, policy and constraint has produced three distinct policy regimes. In the first, from 1982 to 1997, policy-makers faced few constraints, immigration was tightly controlled and the public were unconcerned about the issue. In the second, from 1997 to 2004, migration policy was selectively liberalised in response to external and interest group pressures, producing increasing inflows and growing public demands for restriction. In the third, from 2004 to the time of writing, public demand for restriction is strong but policy-makers face significant constraints in responding. In all periods, policy-makers seek to focus restriction on the migrant streams most opposed by the public, but as they have lost discretionary power over the issue they have been forced to take action against more economically valuable and socially accepted migrant streams. The growing constraints on policy-makers have therefore sharpened the trade-off between the ‘responsive’ government of meeting public demands for immigrations restriction and the ‘responsible’ government goal of providing for the needs of a flexible, globally integrated economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the importance of regional democracy, comparative analyses of voter participation in regional elections are rare. We examine individual participation in regional elections in Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom and make three arguments: (i) standard models of turnout devised for national contests only partly explain regional turnout, with the personal characteristics of voters more important than contextual variables; (ii) territorial identity and the level of jurisdictional authority wielded by the regional legislature are important determinants of electors' willingness to participate in regional elections; (iii) when we contrast subjective perception and objective/aggregate findings we see that regional legislative authority matters more than perceived salience, and individual regional identity matters more than the views of fellow citizens, but that these effects are largely conditional on age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the edited transcript of a witness history seminar which brought together high profile ‘insiders’ and ‘outside’ academic commentators to reflect critically on New Labour's governance of Britain, 1997–2010. The contributions cover major areas of government activity, notably the economy, industrial policy, social justice, energy policy, ‘Europe’, military intervention, the use of intelligence, party and image management, and government decision-making. In their respective area of expertise, the contributors investigate the Conservative legacy seen through the eyes of New Labour people, the policies New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown tried to put in place, what changes these policies were intended to bring about and, finally, what the overall balance sheet of achievements was. The concluding section draws out the key domestic and foreign policy lessons learned during the New Labour years. The article presents a fascinating collection of findings that will be hugely relevant to Ed Miliband's Labour Party as it gears up for the 2015 general election and after. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The new Labour government that entered office in 1997 made early childhood education and care (ECEC) a policy priority, after decades of neglect. The article provides an overview of the subsequent policy developments, looking at three areas in more detail: governance and finance; the organisation and management of services; and the workforce. It then brings the story up to the present day, with policy developments since the 2010 election, during a period of severe public austerity. The article concludes by providing a critical assessment of these developments. From all the attention and activity that has surrounded ECEC in England in recent years, what actually has been achieved? Has it been a case of evolution or transformation? Overall, the article concludes that the period since 1997, despite some important gains, has overall been a story of missed opportunities, a case of more of the same rather than transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]