Elections determine who is to take control of government. From the research point of view they also have the advantage of involving a large number of citizens and of producing a large volume of reasonably reliable statistics, so they are one of the best topics for research on mass political behaviour. They tell us a lot about how ordinary citizens relate to politics, what they think is important and how they make up their minds about governments and issues.

Given their importance in any democratic system of government, a great many questions can be asked about voting and elections: How are democratic elections best organised? Who votes and should we worry about declining turnout? Who votes for what party and why? How have voting patterns changed in recent decades?

In this chapter we tackle these questions in the following sections:

• Democratic elections

• Voting systems

• Voting turnout

• Party voting

• Theories of voting.

■ Elections

Democratic elections

The preconditions for democratic elections are demanding, and we should not take them for granted, even in advanced democracies. They include universal adult suffrage, a secret ballot, impartial administration of voting and vote counting, free and equal access to the polls, freedom for candidates and parties to contest elections and an absence of gerrymandering.