Welsh Journals

'MULTIPLE PARTY POLITICS' AND THE 1987 GENERAL ELECTION IN WALES: R. Prentice CAMBRIA Prentice R.C. 1988 'Multiple party politics' and the 1987 General Election in Wales. Cambria, 15, 37-59. ISSN 0306-9796. ABSTRACT Correlates of voting shares gained by the four nain political parties in Wales in the 1987 General Election are examined. A contingency analysis is used to define trends and identify residual constituencies. A methodology is presented for analysing 'multiple party politics' in which the traditional concepts of 'swing' in voting shares between two parties are of limited applicability. AUTHOR'S ADDRESS Dr R.C.Prentice, Department of Geography, University College of Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, West Glamorgan, Wales. (Paper submitted 24th June 1987 revised paper accepted 23rd June 1988) INTRODUCTION The territorial dimension of United Ringdom politics has been neither the major focus of political geography nor a particular focus for political scientists. The devolution debates of the 1970s and the so-called 'North- South Divide' in Britain of the 1980s have however encouraged some attention to be paid to territorial variations in voting and political representation (e.g. Madgwick and Rose 1982; Jones and Wilford 1986). The 1987 General Election has enphasised the need to develop territorial analyses of voting, since the outcome in Wales was contrary to that in South East England, the English Midlands, East Anglia and the West of England, and was akin to the outcome in Scotland and the North of England. Unlike in Southern England, where the Conservatives increased their electoral support, in Wales the Labour Party increased its support. Wales differed from England in a further way. In Wales 'four party politics' pertained in both the 1983 and 1987 General Elections with candidates from the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal-SDP Alliance and Plaid Cymru standing in each of the 38 Welsh Parliamentary Constituencies. By definition, therefore, the electorate had the opportunity of voting for at least three candidates of national parties who were not elected. As a consequence, in 1987 in less than 40 per cent of Welsh constituencies did the Member of Parliament elected gain over half of the votes cast (Table 1).