Denver et al suggest that 'in recent years, constituency campaigns have played an increasingly significant part in elections' (2012, p.181). Analyse the continuing relevance of ground campaigning in the post-modern campaign environment. Tyler Walsh – PO-234 A key activity of political parties in liberal democracies is to fight elections and, as the franchise was extended, parties developed strategies to attract the ever-increasing number of voters hence election campaigns grew in importance, particularly in Britain. Cutts, Webber, Widdop, Johnston and Pattie write that ‘the nature and impact of constituency party campaigning in British general elections has been subject of much recent research’ 197 , thus this essay takes election campaigning to its core in order to debate the position of ground campaigning in Britain in the contemporary election era. Firstly, there will be a consideration of the three phases of campaigning in order to discuss the differing attitudes towards ground campaigning in an ever changing technological context. Then there will be an analysis of the relevance of the ground campaign in relation to the post-modern campaign environment in order to come to the conclusion that ‘constituency campaigns have played an increasingly s ignificant part in elections’ 198 Election campaigns, rather than being static, have evolved over time as a result of a ‘modernisation process rooted in technological and political developments common in many post- industrial societies’ 199 ; this has led to the development of distinctive 197 Cutts, D., Webber, D., Widdop, P., Johnston., R & Pattie, C. (2014). With a little help from my neighbours: Aspatial analysis of the impact of local campaigns at the 2010 British general election. Electoral Studies, 34, 216- 231, p.216 198 Denver, D., Carman., C & Johns, R. (2012). Elections and voters in Britain (3rd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p.181 199 Norris, P. (2000). A virtuous circle: Political campaigns in postindustrial societies. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, p.2
88
Made with FlippingBook HTML5