Issue emphasis and the ethnic minority vote: a comparative study of national and local party campaigns in the 2010 UK general electrion

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the relationship between the emphasis of issues by
political parties and targeting of ethnic minority voters in the 2010 UK general
election. Previous research has found some evidence to support the idea that such a
relationship exists and has arguably become more noticeable in recent years. It was
hypothesised that parties had tailored strategies in ethnically diverse constituencies in
order to attract votes from ethnic minority communities. This was tested by
employing both quantitative and qualitative content analysis to measure and compare
the salience of issues in election campaign materials from national and local levels.
The findings show that political parties only target ethnic minority voters to a certain
extent as they largely emphasise the same issues at both levels. This study offers an
insight into how parties interact with ethnic minority voters which may contribute in
helping to further understandings of party behaviour during election campaigns.