John Curtice

The Scottish parliamentary and local elections of 2007 were significant for two key reasons: the SNP was brought to power for the first time in its history, posing a fundamental challenge to the 300-year Scottish-English Union; and the local elections used the Single Transferable Vote - the first time such an electoral system has been used in Great Britain since 1945. This book explores the significance of these two developments, asking whether they herald a revolutionary break with the past or simply mark a continuing evolution of existing patterns of Scottish politics. It uses a unique source of evidence - representative high quality annual sample surveys of the Scottish public that since 1999 have regularly measured how people in Scotland have reacted to devolution and how they have behaved in elections. Readers will gain an unparalleled insight into the identities, attitudes and electoral behaviour of people in Scotland during the first decade of devolution.

The Scottish parliamentary and local elections of 2007 were significant for two key reasons: the SNP was brought to power for the first time in its history, posing a fundamental challenge to the 300-year Scottish-English Union; and the local elections used the Single Transferable Vote - the first time such an electoral system has been used in Great Britain since 1945. This book explores the significance of these two developments, asking whether they herald a revolutionary break with the past or simply mark a continuing evolution of existing patterns of Scottish politics. It uses a unique source of evidence - representative high quality annual sample surveys of the Scottish public that since 1999 have regularly measured how people in Scotland have reacted to devolution and how they have behaved in elections. Readers will gain an unparalleled insight into the identities, attitudes and electoral behaviour of people in Scotland during the first decade of devolution.

What are Scots' expectations of their new Parliament? What influenced them when they were casting their votes in the first elections? What social policies do they want the Parliament to pursue? How do they see the future of Scotland's relationship with the rest of the UK and the rest of Europe? And how does the country's new constitutional status relate to people's sense of national identity? The book analyses Scotland's first parliamentary election in May 1999, and looks to the future of Scottish politics, Scottish social attitudes and Scotland's relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom. Written by the leading authorities on Scottish politics and society, it provides a definitive account of social and political attitudes in Scotland at the beginning of the new parliamentary democracy, and at a time when Scotland's relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom is undergoing radical change.

To what extent are the techniques of campaigning and media management critical to the outcome of modern elections? This book brings together a group of leading scholars to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of political communications during election campaigns. They set the context of election campaigning in Britain, and the methodology used to undertand media effects, review party strategies and resulting media coverage, and draw together evidence of the impact of the 1997 British General Election campaign, analyzing how far television and the press media influenced the public's civic engagement, agenda priorities, and party preferences.

To what extent are the techniques of campaigning and media management critical to the outcome of modern elections? This book brings together a group of leading scholars to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of political communications during election campaigns. They set the context of election campaigning in Britain, and the methodology used to undertand media effects, review party strategies and resulting media coverage, and draw together evidence of the impact of the 1997 British General Election campaign, analyzing how far television and the press media influenced the public's civic engagement, agenda priorities, and party preferences.