Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Over the last decade, there has been a renewal of interest in, and revaluation of, the effects of local constituency campaigning on the part of both academics and political parties. From the 1950s to the 1980s, as campaigning became more 'nationalised' - dominated by party leaders and focused almost exclusively on the national mass media - local constituency campaigns came to be seen as rather meaningless side-shows. During the 1980s, however, a significant 'revisionist' literature appeared, suggesting that effective and intense constituency campaigning could have a significant impact in terms of improved electoral performance by the parties and, partly as a consequence of this, the parties themselves have recently placed much more emphasis on local campaigning.

Five studies have been conducted in this series so far, of which four are currently available from the UK Data Archive. These cover the 1992 election (held under SN 3587), the 1997 election (SN 3922), 2001 election (SN 4508) and the 2010 election (SN 6830). A study was conducted in 2005, but the Archive does not hold the 2005 data.


The purpose of the first study in the series, conducted after the 1992 general election, was to provide a survey-based account of constituency campaigning, in particular, to construct a direct measure of the intensity of campaigning by the various parties in different constituencies in order to assess the impact of campaigning on constituency election results.
Main Topics:

Campaign preparations and organisation; campaign activity and effort; polling day activity and effort; use of computers in campaigning; use of and attitudes towards local media.