Public Opinion, Parties and Elections

The Public Opinion, Parties and Elections (POPE) research group draws its faculty and postgraduate members from across the College of Arts and Humanities.  Members conduct empirical research on political behaviour, including gender quotas, electoral law, campaign finance reform, electoral systems and the public opinion industry. The three main areas are:

• electoral behaviour, including voter turnout and partisan preference at the sub-state, state and supra-state level. Much of this reasearch explores the impact of multi-level governance on voter behaviour
• public opinion, including attitude measurement, regulation of the polling industry, agenda-setting, priming and the impact of the media on opinion formation, as well as citizen engagement, referendums and direct or deliberative democracy
• political parties, including 'mainstream', regionalist, Communist and radical parties. Research in this theme often explores the responses of party strategies and structures to differing political and institutional constraints.

Much of the work is comparative although most members have specialist areas, including the United Kingdom, Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe, the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain and Belgium, as well as sub-state polities such as the UK devolved administrations, German Länder, Spanish autonomous communities and Canadian provinces.

If you are interested to join the POPE group, or have questions about its various activities please contact the group convener Ailsa Henderson (ailsa.henderson@ed.ac.uk).