In this study of grass-roots election campaigning, the authors survey the evolution of campaigning over the past century and describe how the parties organized their constituency campaigns in the 1992 election. They examine and evaluate the campaign techniques used and look at the role of local media and national party organizations. Basing their analysis mainly on a large-scale postal survey of election agents in Britain, the authors have constructed a quantitative measure of the strength of the constituency campaigns mounted by the different parties across the country, and use this measure to assess the effects of local campaigning.

In this study of grass-roots election campaigning, the authors survey the evolution of campaigning over the past century and describe how the parties organized their constituency campaigns in the 1992 election. They examine and evaluate the campaign techniques used and look at the role of local media and national party organizations. Basing their analysis mainly on a large-scale postal survey of election agents in Britain, the authors have constructed a quantitative measure of the strength of the constituency campaigns mounted by the different parties across the country, and use this measure to assess the effects of local campaigning.