Survey of election agents for study of constituency campaigning at the 2017 British general election

DOI

This data collection consists of a survey of elections agents from the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru (PC) and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) conducted immediately after the British general election of 2017. The survey covers details of the preparations for the campaign, organisation and strategy, and campaign and polling day activities. In addition, it covers an evaluation of the administration of the campaign. Surveys were sent to all agents and the dataset comprises responses from 180 Conservative Agents; 333 Labour Agents; 314 Liberal Democrat Agents; 23 SNP Agents; 28 Plaid Cymru Agents; and 114 UKIP Agents.Constituency level campaigning has become crucial to the electoral strategies of all the major parties in Britain, and a significant academic literature has emerged (Denver and Hands, 1992,1993,1996,1997a,1997b,1998; Denver et al, 2002a, 2002b, 2003; Fisher et al, 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2009, 2011a, 2011b, 2014a, 2014b; 2016; 2017; Fieldhouse and Cutts, 2009). This work has revealed how campaigns have changed over time; how parties have responded to wider changes in society, the electorate, and within their own parties; the degree to which parties are able to harness their resources effectively to fight elections; how voters respond to cues from the parties, and the extent to which voters can be mobilized. The analysis of the constituency campaign is an integral part of studying elections by the electoral studies community, external stakeholders and the ESRC (Williams, 2007). The ESRC has funded this unique study, which the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, at each general election since 1992 (with the exception of 2005, which was funded at a much lower level by the Electoral Commission). There is therefore a unique and valuable time series which furthers our understanding of the impact, role, and nature of campaigns in the modern political arena. The proposed study will continue this valuable work as well as delivering significant added value.

Postal Survey sent to all electoral agents of for Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Plaid Cymru and UKIP candidates at the 2017 general election. Online survey offered in addition. No sampling - entire population received survey together with repeated follow-ups. Responses are representative based on electoral status of the seats for each party

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-853303
Metadata Access https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/oai-pmh/v0/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_ddi25&identifier=0daa60fb11c60cb957d359ab5d897e5700e009d99c10b078600ccb06ca1db070
Provenance
Creator Fisher, J, Brunel University London; Cutts , D, University of Birmingham; Fieldhouse, E, University of Manchester
Publisher UK Data Service
Publication Year 2018
Funding Reference Economic and Social Research Council
Rights Justin Fisher, Brunel University London. David Cutts, University of Birmingham. Edward Fieldhouse , University of Manchester; The Data Collection is available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access.
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Numeric
Discipline Social Sciences
Spatial Coverage Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales); United Kingdom