Abstract
Parties devote immense effort and resources — manpower, money and planning — to general election campaigns. However, in terms of the voting decisions of some three-quarters of the electorate, and the election outcome of some four-fifths of seats, the results are largely decided before the dissolution of parliament. Party strategists have to remind themselves of the limits which can be achieved by even the best-run campaign. For many voters electoral choice is a product of a life-time of influences, rather than a response to the stimuli associated with the four hectic weeks of an election campaign.1
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Notes
See I. Crewe, ‘The Campaign Confusion’, New Society, 8 May 1987.
see David Cox, ‘Does election broadcasting meet the needs of the voters?’, Listener, 18 June 1987, p. 16.
R. Tyler, Campaign: The Selling of the Prime Minister (London, 1987).
On this see R. Oakley, ‘Tangle of Labour Tax and Benefits Policy Fuels Doubts’, The Times, 9 June 1987.
For one insider’s account, see D. Wilson, Battle for Power (London, 1987).
See R. Eliahoo ‘What the voters thought of the election circus’, Campaign 26 June 1987.
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© 1988 David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh
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Butler, D., Kavanagh, D. (1988). Retrospect. In: The British General Election of 1987. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19143-7_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19143-7_11
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