Social & Regional Factors Affecting Party Success

Various social and regional factors affect who votes for which party. As social factors change over time, how well a party does in an election may change.

2.4.3

Factors Affecting Party Success

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Party Factors Affecting Election Success

The party leader, party policies and the election campaign will impact a party's success.

Party leader

The party leader represents the party and many voters view the leader as the image of the party.
Public opinion of the leader and their ability to offer an appealing brand to the electorate plays an important role in creating support for the party.

Party leader: charisma

A leader’s personality, charisma and popularity among voters is important.
- Nigel Farage was viewed as the image of UKIP and his charisma played a role in UKIP’s appeal to voters.
Since Farage stepped down as the leader, UKIP has not achieved the same electoral success.
- Tony Blair was popular beyond traditional Labour voters.
- Blair's personality and charisma had wide appeal, which were important in the success of New Labour from 1997.

Party leader: uniting the party

Party leaders unite the party, which is important because party supporters may come from a range of groups in society.
More divided parties struggle to win elections and appeal to voters.
- The Labour Party is divided under Jeremy Corbyn, who faced a vote of no confidence in 2016.
- The Conservative Party is divided over the issue of leaving the EU.

Party leader: funding

Party leaders play a role in gaining party funding, which is crucial as greater resources can mean the ability to run a stronger election campaign.
- Theresa May held dinners for donors to increase funding for the Conservative Party.

Election campaigns

The election campaign tells the public about party policies, the personality of the leader, and how the party behaves under pressure.
- For example, Ed Miliband was seen to be a weaker leader than David Cameron, because of problems in the election campaign.
But, studies have shown that voters already know who they will choose before the election campaign, so the election may not always change minds.

Policies

Party policies are important to gather support.
Change in party policies can gather new voters.
- In 1997, after Labour rebranded to ‘New Labour’ under Tony Blair, they achieved their biggest general election victory.

The Media & External Events

How a party is portrayed in the media, the impact of external events, and how a politician responds to them affects how well a party does.

The media

The media provides the means by which the electorate can access information on parties.
Different media outlets support different parties and encourage readers to vote in certain ways.
- The Daily Mail is a right-wing paper. The paper supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum
- The Guardian is a centrist/left-leaning newspaper. Some Jeremy Corbyn supporters have accused the paper of being biased against the Labour leader.
- The BBC is funded by taxpayers and is supposed to be unbiased.

External events

How parties respond to external events (ie outside of UK politics and goings-on in Westminster) may impact their support.
- Terror attacks, world politics and protests may all be commented on and responded to by major parties.
- If a party responds in an unpopular way, this may impact their support.