case studies elections
- Created by: reneesimba
- Created on: 17-03-19 15:44
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- Case studies of elections
- 1979 election
- In 1979, Maggie Thatcher's party won the election, winning a small majority of 43 which increased in latter elections
- Election results can be explained by factors such as the party policies and manifesto, political context and the campaign ran by both parties
- Result of election
- -A key reason for the conservative success was the Labour party's weakness, which had lost a vote of no confidence and had been regularly defeated in parliament
- Callaghan was also seen as unfit to control trade unions, who had been striking following attempts to impose a 5% limit on pay increases in the early 1979
- His government was also not addressing why there was social breakdown all across the UK.
- Country was recovering from "winter of discontent".
- 1979 Election campaign
- Margaret Thatcher used publicity specialists Tim Bell and Gordon Reece in her campaign and had a number of photo opportunities that she took advantage of
- Conservatives put pressure on Labour party over the "winter of discontent"
- Jim Callaghan did better than Thatcher in opinion polls and had thought to have more political experience
- Party Policies
- Both conservative and Labour party manifestos were moderate and both parties prioritised reducing inflation
- Thatcher mentioned privatising recently nationalised industries and reducing influence of trade unions, but did not outline to which extent.
- 1997 Election
- In 1997, Blair won and was elected with 418 seats and labour remained in power until 2010
- Election Result:Political context
- The conservatives were unpopular after John Major's government's failings from the previous 5 years and only won 30% of the vote
- The conservative were viewed as weak on economic policy because of "black wednesday" in 1992
- Despite economic improvement since then, many voters had not felt the benefits of the recovery through more investment in public service or tax cuts
- Conservatives were involved in a number of sexual and financial scandals which weakened their appeal.
- Election result:campaign
- Labour used public relations experts to handle the media and used focus groups in order to understand the public best
- Campaign involved targeting marginal seats, which only required a small swing to change
- Election result:Party Policies
- Tony Blair's new government had a modernise policies and had strayed from traditional labour policies of increasing taxes, strengthening trade unions and nationalization.
- New Labour was stricter on law and order and Blair emphasized on links to business
- Labour emphasised itself as a moderate party that appealed to Middle England
- Labour's constitutional reform policy appealed to liberal democrat voters who supported libdems however did not have chances of winning
- Tony Blair's new government had a modernise policies and had strayed from traditional labour policies of increasing taxes, strengthening trade unions and nationalization.
- Untitled
- In 2010, conservatives were the biggest party with 306 seats-had to form coalition
- Result:Political context
- Election followed 2008 finanncial crisis which took place whilst Gordon Brown was prime minister and gave conservatives ammunition to attack labour policies
- Brown was unpopular for not calling an election when he took over from Tony Blair
- Voters trusted conservatives more with economy
- Result:Election Campaign
- Television debates were held with the three major candidates, Brown, Clegg and Cameron
- Clegg perforned particularly well and saw an increase in opinion polls, whilst Brown's popularity decreased
- Conservatives targeted marginal seats whilst labour had weak campaign.
- Gordon Brown was heard calling a voter "bigoted woman" after asking about immigration.
- Result:Party Policies
- Main parties all focused on policies to reduce budget deficit and making savings
- Conservatives staed need for immediate cuts
- Conservatives target labour economic policy in government, which they said included overspending and failing to regulate bank system
- Popular belief shared amongst voters
- Main parties all focused on policies to reduce budget deficit and making savings
- Result:Political context
- 2010 election
- 1979 election
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