Affluence, Austerity and Electoral Change in Britain

Advance praise: 'More than a sequel to the two highly regarded previous British Election Study volumes on the 2001 and 2005 campaigns, this book reinforces earlier evidence on the importance of valence issues with new material from the 2010 elections. Now the authors add a dynamic element, tracking the ebb and flow of party vote shares across elections - along with detailed new evidence on the campaign dynamics in 2010. Whiteley and his colleagues produce an impressive holistic model to explain how contemporary electoral democracy works in Britain and how it has been changing.' Russell J. Dalton, University of California, Irvine Advance praise: 'Affluence, Austerity and Electoral Change in Britain is sure to become one of the 'must-read' books on elections and voting, not only for students of British politics, but also for scholars in other countries who want to understand the dynamics of modern election campaigns and the explanatory power of alternative models of voting behaviour. A thorough, highly readable and sophisticated analysis of the rise and fall of New Labour, the political consequences of the 2007-8 economic crisis and related events, the austerity policies brought in following the 2010 election and the electoral prospects of the Cameron-Clegg coalition.' Lawrence LeDuc, University of Toronto Advance praise: 'There are 'good' election surveys and 'great' election surveys. The British Election Survey (BES), led by the Essex team, comes as close to the second category as any election survey yet. In this volume, these scholars combine concise data analysis with elegant prose, to explain how Brits pick their national political leaders. The story has elements of drama: the Northern Rock Bank failure, the hung parliament. And, there's continuity, such as the decline of class voting and the strength of valence issues such as the economy. The investigation uses avant garde research techniques, including the Continuous Monitoring Survey and internet sampling. The methodological and intellectual edge of the work furthers a tradition begun in the first BES, launched 50 years ago. [This book] stands as a fitting commemoration of that milestone.' Michael S. Lewis-Beck, F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa