Module description
What’s it about?
In democracies, politicians gain power by winning elections, so one of the most important elements in understanding politics is understanding why voters vote as they do, and how they can be persuaded to change their minds. The politicians may try to persuade the voters that the policies they believe in are best, or they may follow the public mood and promise to do what they think the voters want. They may also try to convince the voters they are more trustworthy or competent than their opponents, or that what their party stands for is more worthy or more practical than what the other parties stand for. The voters may be influenced by this, and they may also be influenced by the media or by the opinions of families and friends. Looking at how all these factors have operated in practice, and how the nature of elections and election campaigns has changed and is changing, helps understand how politics works today, and how it might work in the future. This course gives an overview of British electoral politics over the last eighty years, considering some of the most important elections in that period, the issues those elections they were fought over, how the politicians campaigned and what they hoped to achieve, why the voters voted the way they did. It traces the gradual modernisation of campaigning techniques and changes in whole approach of politicians, the media, and the voters to elections. But it concentrates on the relationship between politics and public opinion – what we know about it and how political scientists and others go about studying it.
How does it work?
The course consists of weekly one-hour lectures and weekly one-hour small group seminars on topics related to that week’s lecture. The seminars allow for discussion, debates, consideration of thematic questions and critical engagement; students will need to complete the relevant reading to participate fully in the seminars and may be asked to present the conclusions they draw from their reading to stimulate the discussion.
What’s in it?
Each lecture will cover the main events and context of a single election, together with a key innovation or event at that election which is related to the wider themes of the course; the seminar will explore that theme in more depth. For example, the second lecture covers the general election of 1945: we look at the reasons for Labour’s victory in that election, why it was unexpected and what it meant for the country and the Labour Party. (There is still much disagreement on the answers to these questions, and the differing interpretations have affected the way Labour politicians have seen their role ever since.) But the 1945 election was also the first to be studied as it happened by political scientists and was written up in the first of the “Nuffield election studies”, and we will also therefore discuss some of early methods of analysis and the conclusions that they drew. In particular, it was the 1945 Nuffield election study that first explained the newly-discovered idea of “swing”, showing how the apparently chaotic electoral system in fact worked in a much more straightforward way than anybody had previously realised: in the seminar we will look at how Britain’s “first-past-the-post” electoral system works, its impact on election results and on the way politicians set about fighting elections (applying these lessons not only to 1945 but to more recent elections).
Topics covered during the course will include:
- the nature of public opinion and how it is measured;
- theories about why voters vote the way they do and what factors influence them, with an introduction to the methods that political scientists use to study this;
- how Britain’s unusual electoral system works in practice, and the impact this has had on British politics;
- the influence of the media on public opinion and how politicians try to communicate with the public through the media;
- why modern election campaigns cost so much, and the attempts that have been made to reduce the influence of money in British politics;
- the tension between “image” and “substance” in modern democratic decision making;
- the democratic implications of modern trends, including falling turnouts and lower engagement with politics.
Assessment details
2,000-word essay (50%) & 2-hour written exam (50%)
Semester 1 only students will be given an appropriate alternative assessment for In person January exams.
Educational aims & objectives
- To provide an understanding of elections and electoral politics in the UK since the late 1930s
- To introduce students to relevant analytical skills
- To develop student understanding of theoretical concepts
- To introduce students to a range of evidence and develop their ability to identify evidence and use it to discuss theoretical approaches and practical outcomes
Learning outcomes
Students will:
- gain an understanding of the major landmarks in British electoral history over the past three-quarters of a century and the way in which those elections were fought;
- be able to understand the historical context behind the functioning of the British political system today;
- be able to demonstrate the ability to identify key theoretical approaches to understanding the British political system;
- be introduced to the methods used to study electoral behaviour and be able to analyse the findings that have resulted;
- be able to consider critically the relationship between theoretical views of politics and democracy and the practical consequences of the sovereignty of the people in a 21st century society.