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Does Local Party Organization Matter?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2009
Extract
Are local election campaigns just periodic acts of renewal, seasonal rites, or do they gain extra votes? Whatever may be true at general elections, low turnout is a reason for thinking that the scope for organization at local elections may be considerable.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972
References
1 See Bochel, J. M. and Denver, D. T., ‘Canvassing, Turnout and Party Support: An Experiment’, British Journal of Political Science, I (1971), 257–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘The Impact of the Campaign on the Results of Local Government Elections’, British Journal of Political Science, II (1972), 239–44.Google Scholar I would suggest that the evidence in this Note is rather more emphatic.
2 Voting figures were as follows (1970 figures in brackets): Results in nine out of a total of nineteen Newcastle wards cannot be compared individually with 1970 figures because of boundary changes. They can, however, be compared in three groups of four, three and two wards respectively.
3 Swing is calculated as the average of the increase in percentage of the total vote of one main party and the decrease in percentage of the total vote of the other. In Walkergate all 1968–1971 elections were straight fights.
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