Dennis Kavanagh Books

The British General Election of 2010 is a must-read for anyone wanting to know how the action unfolded in the most dramatic election for a generation. Drawing on hundreds of confidential interviews with all the key players, it offers a compelling insider's guide to the election's background, campaign and results, including a detailed account of what really happened in the formation of the UK's first coalition government since the second world war. Designed to appeal to everyone from Westminster insiders, to politics students and to the wider general public, this is the authoritative account of the 2010 election. Continuing a proud Palgrave Macmillan tradition, The British General Election of 2010 is the eighteenth in the prestigious series of books dating back to 1945.

The advent of new technology and the importation of 'professional communicators' has transformed the nature of British election campaigning. In this book, Dennis Kavanagh explores this so-called process of 'Americanization', characterized by the increasing importance of the media in elections and the rise of advertising agencies, pollsters, public relations advisers and speechwriters. He examines how the 'professional communicators' function within British politics, and assesses the reaction of the politicians themselves to the changing environment of election campaigns.

Written from a UK perspective in a consistently clear and lively style, constantly challenging the reader and raising thought-provoking issues, Politics UK examines, in an introductory fashion, the core elements of politics in the United Kingdom. Provides information on the constitution, political ideology, parliament, Prime Minister and departments of the government, elections and voting behavior, the media, pressure groups, local government and the judiciary as well as the major policy areas. For anyone interested in the government and politics of the UK. Previous edition ISBN 0-132-69606-1.

Originally published in 1983, this book locates the behavioural approach to the study of politics in its social science and historical context. The text reviews the findings in a number of fields – public opinion, electoral behaviour, political participation, policy outputs, political recruitment, political welfare and socialisation, among others. The book is comprehensive and when first published it was the first single-author study to integrate the diverse findings of many studies both from the UK and North America. It was particularly written for students on courses in political analysis, political methods, political sociology and political behaviour