Explore the vast range of titles available.

This major new work from the well-known team of Heath, Jowell and Curtice explores the emergence of New Labour from the ruins of old Labour's four successive defeats at the hands of the Conservatives. Based on the authoritative British Election Surveys the book explores some of the key questions about contemporary British elections and the social a.

The Scottish parliamentary and local elections of 2007 were significant for two key reasons: the SNP was brought to power for the first time in its history, posing a fundamental challenge to the 300-year Scottish-English Union; and the local elections used the Single Transferable Vote - the first time such an electoral system has been used in Great Britain since 1945. This book will explore the significance of these two developments, asking whether they herald a revolutionary break with the past or simply mark a continuing evolution of existing patterns of Scottish politics. It does so using a unique source of evidence - representative high quality annual sample surveys of the Scottish public that since 1999 have regularly measured how people in Scotland have reacted to devolution and how they have behaved in elections. Readers will gain an unparalleled insight into the identities, attitudes and electoral behaviour of people in Scotland during the first decade of devolution. Summary reprinted by permission of Edinburgh University Press

As has been the case in a number of countries, parents in England have increasingly been given the opportunity to choose between different types of schools. Doing so is regarded as a way of meeting individual needs and improving academic standards. Faith-based schools long predate this move towards a more diversified educational system, but have come to be regarded as one of the ways of fulfilling the recent agenda. Drawing on social identity theory, we suggest that attitudes towards faith-based schools reflect social (religious) identities and group interests associated with those identities rather than beliefs about the merits of individual choice. We demonstrate this is the case using data from all four parts of the UK. However, the extent to which attitudes towards faith-based schools are a reflection of religious identities varies across the four parts in line with the structure of the religious economy and educational provision locally. We conclude that rather than reflecting a supposedly a-social concern with choice, support for diversity of educational provision may be rooted instead in collective – and potentially antagonistic – social identities.

The link between voters’ policy preferences and public policy has been the subject of considerable academic interest in recent years (Stimson et al, 1995; Erikson et al, 2002; Bartels, 2008). After all, one of the widely espoused aims of democracy is to facilitate government ‘for the people’. Of particular interest in this respect has been the work of Soroka and Wlezien, who have characterised the relationship between the two as analogous to that between a thermostat and a radiator (Wlezien, 1995, 2004; Soroka and Wlezien, 2005).

Explores the history and ideas of the Scottish Conservative Party since its creation in 1912. The Scottish Conservative Party has played a significant role in the politics of Scotland during the last century. This book explores the nature of the party, its standing in Scotland, its influence on the Union and its role in the Scottish Parliament. In particular it asks how the party lost support so dramatically in Scotland, from a majority of votes and seats at the 1955 general election to a single constituency and 17% of the vote in 2010. Divided into 2 parts: The Rise and Fall of Unionist Scotland and In the Political Wilderness Includes contributions from leading academics and political commentators including Richard Finlay, Colin Kidd, Catriona Macdonald, James Mitchell and Alex Massie

One of the major goals of devolution in Scotland was to change the way people felt about their country and government. Drawing on a range of Scottish Election Studies and Scottish Social Attitudes surveys, this book explores the reaction of the Scottish public to devolution and the lessons this experience may hold for the future.

The indispensable annual British Social Attitudes survey compiles, describes and comments on a range of current social attitudes. The series charts changes in British social values, with annual surveys carried out from a nationwide sample of around 3,500 people by the National Centre for Social Research's team of interviewers. The 18th Report summarizes and interprets data from the most recent survey, and makes comparisons with findings from previous years. `The Rolls Royce of opinion surveys' - The Times