Book Review: The Britain Votes 2005

Book Review: The Britain Votes 2005

Synopsis

The book, “The Britain Votes 2005” Edited by Pippa Norris & Christopher Wlezien, offers a detail, unbiased and recent outline of the campaign that leads to the British general Elections 2005. The results of the elections are also analyzed in a straightforward, lively and clear style for every kind of people such as students, teachers, practitioners or just common readers. Part I of the book describes the tactics and strategies adopted by the parties who were fighting the campaigns for the election. It elaborates the use of media for campaigning such as newspapers, TV, internet and radio. The dynamics of the opinion polls which led to the polling day is also discussed in this book. Part II of the book examines the results of the election In Scotland, Ireland and Wales and how race, voting issue, gender politics, and leaderships affected the electoral system and the results for the new parliament (Norris and Wlezien, 2005). This book is written by the well known experts on British elections and voting behavior of people, public opinion, party politics, political sociology and political behavior. This book is a part of the Hansard Society Series in Politics and Government.

Discussion

The British General Election series has become an institution in political science. The Britain Votes, following the pattern of the series, is also written to elabourate the election campaign, polling, results and other aspects of the elections. In the general elections of 2005, a new way of opinion polls worked i.e. through internet. In 2005, the emergence of new and discussed methods of survey, rolling polls - conducted over several days, with shares of respondents who change from one day to another. For analysts of Populus's research institute who first used them to “Times” in the last two weeks of the election campaign of 2005 as well as low cost have the advantage of providing interesting data on the effects of the campaign for the various topics fielded by the parties, the popularity of the leader and the change of the guidelines in the vote. The British election 2005, mark an important evolution in the relationship between web and politics. It is, in hindsight, the 3rd level of a “ladder of evolution” that began in 2003. Before Howard Dean, who first introduced the network within their own political campaign and showed that the web was possible consensus and funding (Norris and Wlezien, 2005). Since the last elections in Britain (2005), which recorded two innovations of great importance? The emergence of a politically active electorate online regardless of political candidates (and their campaigns) - democratization of surveillance and the input of grassroots journalism in traditional media.

Sites like www.theyworkforyou.com , able to collect detailed information on political candidates mark the birth of a new type of electorate, an electorate active on the Internet that does not just follow / criticize the political campaign but becomes in turn a source of information, monitoring the activities of their political and influencing ...