Experts on voting behaviour and elections

Chris Bickerton is a departmental lecturer in International Relations at the department of politics and international relations (DPIR), University of Oxford. He can comment on the different positions taken by the political parties on Europe in the run up to the election and on the role played by the EU more generally in the election campaign. His research interests include all aspects of the European Union: debates about democracy and referendums; Britain’s role in Europe; the enlargement of the European Union; and the impact of the EU on national foreign policies. He is also interested in the changing nature of contemporary political life, and in particular the decline in the role of traditional political parties and the emergence of more populist figures across Europe. Dr Bickerton has experience of national and international media, contributing to newspapers, radio and TV. He is fluent in both French and Spanish. 

Vernon Bogdanor is Professor of Government at Oxford University and Fellow of the British Academy. He is a well known expert on the British constitution and a regular commentator in newspapers and on broadcast news channels. Professor Bogdanor has authored and edited many books on the British constitution exploring themes such as party politics and devolution. Among his many books Professor Bogdanor has published Power and the People: A Guide to Constitutional Reform (1997), Devolution in the United Kingdom (1999),  Joined-Up Government (2005), The People and the Constitution (2009), (ed) From the New Jerusalem to New Labour: British Prime Ministers from Attlee to Blair  (to be published later this year).

Dr David Butler is an Emeritus Fellow in the Department of Politics at Oxford University and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has written many books on elections and politics including a series of books he co-authored on British General Elections. Dr Butler co-invented the notion of the 'swingometer', a device to show the shift in election results from the previous election. 

Raymond Duch is a Professor in Quantitative Political Science at Oxford University. Professor Duch is widely recognised for this work on how the economy affects political behaviour in democratic countries. His recent book How Political and Economic Institutions Condition the Economic Vote (2008) explores the  relationship between the economy and voting behaviour, based on data from 165 election studies conducted in  19 different countries over a 20-year time period. Professor Duch is also Director of the British Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project that is conducting and analysing public opinion polls in cooperation with YouGov.  The project which involves scholars from the leading universities of the world examines the dynamics of the British General Election campaign, factors that are shaping the voting decisions of the British public.

Geoffrey Evans is Professor of the Sociology of Politics and Director of the Centre for Research Methods in the Social Sciences. He is an expert in electoral behaviour and political attitudes in Britain. He can comment on whether political attitudes are influenced by class; Euro-scepticism; and the emergence of the BNP; the effect of proportionate representation; and methods of measuring social and political attitudes in voting behaviour.  

Dr Stephen Fisher, Lecturer in Political Sociology, can comment on elections in the UK; tactical voting and turnout. Publications include Definition and measurement of tactical voting: the role of rational choice, British Journal of Political Science (2004); and Prime ministerial persuasion: Thatcher and Blair in The British Social Attitudes 20th Report (2003).

Anthony Heath is Professor of Sociology and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is an expert on what determines electoral behaviour, in particular the effect of class and ethnicity. He is directing an ethnic minority survey as part of this year's British Election Study (BES), which explores why people choose to vote (or not) and why they support one party rather than another, as well as wider questions about democracy and political participation. The survey will be conducted immediately after the next General Election in order to provide, for the first time since 1997 (when an ethnic minority BES survey was last conducted), an accurate mapping of the political orientations and behaviour of Britain's major ethnic minority groups.    

Iain McLean is Professor of Politics, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He can provide expert comment on devolution, elections in Scotland and Wales, and regional differences in voting behaviour. He was director of the Options for Britain project, a project to assess the key economic, social and constitutional policy options for Britain. He is author of, most recently, What's wrong with the British constitution? (2009).