GV4A2      Half Unit
Citizens' Political Behaviour: Elections, Public Opinion and Identities

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Students intending to take this course are recommended to submit a brief research project idea by the end of AT Week 2. The recommended format is a 1 page proposal indicating a research topic and why it is interesting, a potential specific research question and a brief outline of the methodology the student intends to use to answer this question empirically.

This course intends to familiarise students with the study of electoral psychology and political behaviour in a broad sense. The three main objects of study in political science are institutions, policies, and citizens, and the study of political behaviour and political psychology is the field that centres on the third. A very important part of political behaviour is electoral participation and vote choice. We will explore general models of voting behaviour, electoral psychology, and participation, as well as specific aspects such as extremist politics. We will look closely at public opinion, how it is formed and how it can be studied. In the final part of the course, special consideration is given to political identities and how they are related to political behaviour.

20 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

The seminars include a mixture of 5 substantive seminars, 3 research clinics to discuss the research projects, and 2 election seminars discussing specific elections taking place during the teaching year.

Bruter, M. and Harrison, S. Inside the Mind of a Voter

Harrison, S. Pathologies of Democratic Frustration

Lipset, S., Lazarsfeld, P, et al. The psychology of voting

Sniderman, P. Personality and democratic politics

Bruter, M., and Lodge, M. Political Science research methods in action

Baddeley, A. The psychology of memory

Cammaerts, B.et al. Youth participation in democratic life

Harrison, S and Bruter, M. Mapping extreme right ideology

Van der Eijk, C, and Franklin, M. 2009. Elections and Voters. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Franklin, Mackie, et al. 1992. Electoral Change. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Course participation (20%)

Project (80%, 5000 words) in Spring Term Week 1

One empirical research project, due at the start of ST, on a topic relevant to the course and approved by the course co-ordinator with a word limit of 5,000 words (80%).

The class participation element (20%) involves critiques of further readings work as follows: to make the reading list more manageable for the 5 substantive seminars, all students will only be expected to familiarise themselves with the core readings, and will divide the further readings between themselves. Each student will be expected to be responsible for a total of 4-5 further readings throughout the year, each from different weeks.

Students responsible for a further reading will be asked to write a short (1-2 page) critique of it following a set format (1) what is the research question and why is it interesting, 2) what methods are the authors using, 3) what are the main findings, 4) what are the main shortcomings or what do you wish the authors had done differently) and post it on Moodle by the Sunday before the seminar so that students can quickly browse the week’s ‘menu’ in advance.

The students having each covered different further readings will bring them into the seminar discussion.

The students are asked to select their 3 best critiques which must have been submitted on time on Moodle and which will be marked.