Over the weekend the LSE’s Government Department hosted its Undergraduate Election Conference for 2010.
Simon Hix and Nick Vivyan’s presentation, Countdown to the Election: Polls, Marginals and a Hung Parliament?, makes the prediction of a hung parliament with the Conservatives 6 seats short of a majority:
David Sanders, of the University of Essex’s Department of Government, presented The British Electorate and the 2010 Election, discussing voter turnout since WW2, the problem of youth under-representation in voting, party political engagement, ideology in Britain today and the relationship between the economy and party support:
Professor Patrick Dunleavy then presented The Development and Future of the Electoral and Party Systems in Britain, which looked at Britain’s multi-party status and the degree to which elections in Britain are disproportionate across the regions:
More about the presentations’ authors:
Simon Hix joined the LSE in 1997 and was promoted to Professor in 2004. He is Director of the Political Science and Political Economy Group at the LSE and is the co-editor of the journal European Union Politics. Simon has extensive consultancy experience, including for the UK Cabinet Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European Policy Centre, and has given evidence to the European affairs committees in the House of Lords and House of Commons. He has written several books on EU and comparative politics, including most recently “What’s Wrong With the EU and How to Fix It” (Polity, 2008).
Click here to see Simon Hix’s LSE Expert’s entry.
Nick Vivyan is a PhD student at the LSE Government Department. His thesis is entitled “Partisan appointments personal background and institutional design: An analysis of monetary policy decision-making in independent central banks”. Nick’s research interests cover political economy and legislative and electoral behaviour in the UK.
David Sanders is a Professor of Government at the University of Essex, where he has taught politics since 1975. He is author of numerous books and articles on various aspects of UK politics. He is currently Principal Investigator on the British Election Study. David Sanders has been joint editor of the British Journal of Political Science since 1990.
Professor Patrick Dunleavy is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he has worked since 1979. He was educated at Corpus Christi College and Nuffield College, Oxford, where he gained his D.Phil. He has authored and edited numerous books on political science theory, British politics and urban politics, as well as more than 50 articles in professional journals. His current research includes a seven country study of how central governments relate to the IT industry for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.
