Local and national election agendas

Harrison, Lisa; McSweeney, Dean

Abstract

In the saliency theory of elections parties are seen as monolithic. Each party emphasises the issues they own to gain electoral advantage. There are no rival agendas generated by different factions within the party or its territorial subdivisions. We test this assumption in the 2005 UK general election, comparing national party communications with those of local parties in the South West of England. We found consistency in the issue emphases of Labour's national and local campaigns. But there were divergences in priotities between the national and local campaigns of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. We seek to account for these differences in emphasis.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 3, 2008
• Journal: Representation
• Print ISSN: 0034-4893
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-13
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00344890701869041
• Keywords: local election, national election, election agenda
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1014344
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00344890701869041