ELECTION CASE STUDIES

Question 1

1979 case study - social factors, valence issues, policies and manifestos, party leadership, media

Answer 1

CONS WIN
339 SEATS - 269 SEATS
43.0% - 36.9% of vote

social factors!!- won more of growing middle class vote

valence issues, policies and manifestos!!- labour disunited and looked like not able to deal with economic issues , but cons promised to help middle class get houses and break cycles of strikes

party leadership!!- arguably less because callaghan was well liked compared to thatcher who was names ‘ the milk snatcher ‘

media!!- sun supported cons and cons used successful ‘ media isn’t wokring ‘ campaign

Question 2

1997 case study - social factors, valence issues, policies and manifestos, party leadership, media

Answer 2

LABOUR WIN
418 SEATS - 165 SEATS
43.2% - 30.7% of vote

social factors!!- labour won over the middle class with the third way , took centre ground and crossed class and age divide (except from 65+ and AB)

valence issues, policies and manifestos!!- cons were divided and looked economically and politically incompetent , but labour offered to maintain tory spending plans but focus funding onto education and healthcare

party leadership!!- blair was seen as more interesting than major

media!!- blair used the media effectively where as the conservatives didn’t