Democracy and Elections

We bring together political scientists and sociologists who study democracy, citizen participation and elections.

About

Research undertaken within Democracy and Elections at Manchester focuses on the challenges facing representative institutions and electoral politics, including the decline of trust in democratic institutions, the weakening of established parties, increasing electoral volatility, the rise of populism, the increased use of digital campaigning in elections, electoral fraud, and gender and racial inequalities. 

The mission of Democracy and Elections at Manchester is to provide informed and academic insights into these trends, and to reveal how political attitudes, behaviour, and institutions are changing in Britain and beyond.

Highlights

People

Academic staff

Jack Bailey – economic voting, polling, statistics, sexual minority voting behaviour

Neema Begum – ethnicity, race, ethnic minorities, Brexit

Marta Cantijoch Cunill – political communication, elections and voting, new media, political behaviour, internet use and politics

Jackie Carter – use of data in learning and teaching, Q-Step

Ed Fieldhouse – electoral geography, political participation, social influences on voter turnout

Rob Ford – political sociology, immigration politics, extreme right, psephology

Rachel Gibson – new media, candidates, political campaigns, elections, digital technologies

Nicole Martin – ethnicity, immigration, political behaviour, longitudinal studies

Jonathan Mellon – British electoral politics, electoral volatility, tactical voting, polling, psephology

Olga Onuch – Ukrainian and Argentine politics, protest politics, political behaviour, governance

Rosalind Shorrocks – gender, British politics, electoral politics, social attitudes, feminism

Maria Sobolewska – ethnicity, integration, immigration, public opinion, race

Postgraduate Researchers

Chris Butler – policy responsiveness, UK governments, electoral incentives, political polling

Francisco Espinoza – electoral volatility, Latin America, social stratification

Ceri Fowler – gender, electoral behaviour, EU referendum

James Griffiths – nationalism in multi-nation states, sub-state nationalisms, public opinion

Alex Hartland – public opinion, interest groups, immigration policy

Marta Miori – Scottish independence, Brexit, Scottish politics, electoral behaviour

Kenneth Rushworth – electoral registration, political attitudes, automatic registration

Ralph Scott – education, political attitudes, vote choice, longitudinal data

Associates and Alumni

David Cutts – political behaviour, civic engagement, party and political campaigning

Will Jennings – political trust, institutions, executive government

Peter John – electoral behaviour, social capital, citizenship and participation,

Laura Morales – political behaviour, immigration, ethnicity