Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The General Election of 2010 Justin Fisher and Christopher Wlezien The Leaders 2. Party Leaders as Movers and Shakers in British Campaigns? Results from the 2010 Election Daniel Stevens, Jeffrey A. Karp and Robert Hodgson 3. A Tale of Sound and Fury, Signifying Something? The Impact of the Leaders’ Debates in the 2010 UK General Election Charles Pattie and Ron Johnston The Polls 4. Why Did the Polls Overestimate Liberal Democrat Support? Sources of Polling Error in the 2010 British General Election Mark Pickup, J. Scott Matthews, Will Jennings, Robert Ford and Stephen D. Fisher 5. Confounding the Commentators: How the 2010 Exit Poll Got it (More or Less) Right John Curtice, Stephen D. Fisher and Jouni Kuha The Vote 6. Valence Politics and Electoral Choice in Britain, 2010 Harold Clarke, David Sanders, Marianne Stewart and Paul Whiteley 7. Ethnic Heterogeneity in the Social Bases of Voting at the 2010 British General Election Anthony F. Heath, Stephen D. Fisher, David Sanders and Maria Sobolewska The Outcome 8. Electoral Bias at the 2010 General Election: Evaluating its Extent in a Three-Party System Michael Thrasher, Galina Borisyuk, Colin Rallings and Ron Johnston 9. The UK Coalition Agreement of 2010: Who Won? Thomas Quinn, Judith Bara and John Bartle

About the Author

Justin Fisher is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Magna Carta Institute at Brunel University, UK. he is co-author of British Elections & Parties Review Volume 14 (also published by Routledge) and lead editor of Central Debates in British Politics. Christopher Wlezien is Professor of Political Science at Temple University, USA. He is co-author of Degrees of Democracy and co-editor of Britain Votes, The Future of Election Studies and Who Gets Represented?.