 Local Elections as a ‘Stepping Stone’: Does Winning Council Seats Boost the Liberal Democrats' Performance in General Elections?David Cutts Political Studies, 2014, vol. 62, issue 2, 361-380 Abstract: type="main"> In this article, we use a structural equation model (latent variable mediator analysis) to show that a strong local base has two key effects on Liberal Democrat support in the 2010 general election. First, it has a direct effect on Liberal Democrat support at Westminster elections by bridging the electoral ‘credibility gap’. Second, local success has a significant indirect effect on party performance through campaign effort. Here we find that the Liberal Democrats obtain appreciable electoral benefits where they campaign intensely. They also use grassroots campaigning to recruit local activists and party workers, which cements the local party infrastructure and enables the party to be more effective in targeting local resources. The total standardised effect is therefore fairly substantial even after controlling for an array of other predictors. It is also larger than the total effect of local election success on both Conservative and Labour Party support in 2010. Far from being inconsequential, winning seats at the local level provides a significant boost to the Liberal Democrats' performance in general elections. Date: 2014 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:polstu:v:62:y:2014:i:2:p:361-380 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Political Studies is currently edited by Matthew Festenstein and Martin Smith More articles in Political Studies from Political Studies Association |
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