Follow the Leader?

Abstract

This chapter uses individual-level data from British voters to explore the role that leaders play in contemporary British voting behaviour. It firstly examines a dimension rarely touched on in the existing literature—that of self-expressed leader effects, where voters attribute their vote choice to the leader. Differentials between voter opinions on leaders and their parties are used to explore whether British voters can disentangle the two. The role of the campaign is also explored by assessing whether voters feel differently about a leader before and after the election campaign. To understand the impact that leaders have, the voter behaviour decision is modelled, before those seats visited by a party leader are isolated to explore whether visits may amplify or dampen voter reactions to leaders.