Introduction to CREST
The Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends is a research centre jointly based at the National Centre for Social Research in London and the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford. Having evolved from a successful programme of collaboration between the National Centre and researchers at the University of Oxford since 1983, CREST was founded in 1994. The Co-Directors of CREST are Professor Anthony Heath (University of Oxford) and Alison Park (national Centre) and the Deputy Director is Professor John Curtice (University of Strathclyde).
CREST’s work relies on the conduct and interpretation of high quality social surveys of the general public, designed to document and explain changing patterns of political and social attitudes, identities and behaviour. CREST also develops and encourages improved methods of measuring attitudes and behaviour. CREST was responsible for the 1983, 1987, 1992 and 1997 British Election Surveys and its members are closely involved with the British Social Attitudes surveys. Its current work addresses four main questions:
- What have been the implications of devolution within the UK for national identities and political behaviour in the four territories?
- Are traditional social identities, such as class and party identities, in decline? What are the implications of any such decline for patterns of social attitudes and political behaviour?
- In what ways is British national identity changing and how do conceptions of British identity differ from those in other developed countries?
- How can one improve the cross-national comparability of measures of social attitudes and identities?
CREST has an extensive working paper series to disseminate early research findings. Members of CREST also regularly publish articles in academic journals and have published a number of books and reports for government. Details of recent articles can be found on the recent publications page.
1. Why do people vote the way they do?
British Election Panel Studies
Elections, the cornerstones of any democracy, are a primary focus
of CREST's attention and analysis. In Britain at any rate, general
elections are often won or lost well before the campaign proper
starts. So, as well as interviewing voters during or after elections,
CREST has set up the
British Election Panel Study (BEPS),
which follows a panel of voters - interviewing them every six
months or so - throughout the course of a parliament.
The first BEPS
studied voters from the 1992 General Election through to the 1997 General Election.
In between April 1992 and May 1997 a random sample of people were asked
about their attitudes towards the political events occurring in the lifetime
of the 1992-1997 Conservative Government. This survey was the most ambitious of
its kind ever to be conducted. In total eight surveys took place and the results
they provided have given us a
large amount of new information about the British public and British politics.
A second BEPS, studying a new sample of voters from the 1997 General Election through
to the next General Election, is currently in progress will allow us to assess changes in
voters' attitudes and opinions through the course of the present Labour government.
For more information about the BEPS follow the links below:
British Election Studies
BEPS is able to tell us why and when individual voters change their minds between
one election and the next, but it cannot tell us about long term shifts in the electorate's
political attitudes and voting behaviour. That role is fulfilled by the
British Election Studies (BES), which have recorded
how people have voted at every election since 1964. Submitted to the ESRC in 1998,
The Future of the British Election Studies outlines
the objectives of the BES according the directors of CREST.
(The 2001 British Election Study
is based at the University of Essex).
Questionnaires used for the 1992 BES and 1997 BES can be downloaded from the CREST questionnaire link on this website.
(The sample and questionnaires for the 1992 and 1997 BES are also the baseline for the 1992-97 and
1997-2001 British Election Panel Studies).
Other Voting Studies
During a time of considerable constitutional change in Britain,
CREST is collaborating with experts in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland on ESRC-funded studies of their referendums and elections.
In 1997, the Centre also conducted the first ever specialist
survey research project of ethnic minority voting in the UK. Finally, CREST also
conducted the 2000 London Mayoral Study. The questionnaires
from all these studies are freely available on this website.
Some CREST findings on voting behaviour:
- Social class persists as a key influence on the way people
- By no means all voting behaviour is governed by self interest,
and voters will not necessarily vote for a government that puts
more money in their pockets
- Newspapers have relatively little influence on the outcomes
- British voters are becoming more sophisticated in the use
of 'tactical voting' as a way of expressing their preferences
How are social attitudes changing?
Democratic societies need good information about their changing
social values if their governments are to be able to respond effectively.
The National Centre's annual
British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey
series has been tracking public attitudes in Britain since 1983, providing
CREST with an invaluable tool with which to monitor and interpret
the speed and direction of value change. Each annual nationwide
survey covers an extensive range of topics including health, education,
social security, employment, taxation, law and order, moral issues,
Europe and constitutional issues.
1999 English National Identity Study
CREST's English National Identity Study was
included as a module in the 1999 BSA survey. The questionnaire for the study can be found on the
questionnaire page of this website.
Some CREST findings on social attitudes:
- British public opinion is gradually but persistently becoming
more 'liberal' on moral issues
- Attitudes towards many social and economic issues, such
as unemployment and inflation, tend in contrast to fluctuate according
to the state of the economy
- The British public is highly protective of its welfare
state and consistently willing in principle to see a rise in taxes
rather than a fall in standards of health care or education
- While public attitudes have become increasingly 'green'
on environmental matters over the years, most people concede that
their behaviour has hardly changed
How does Britain differ from other countries in its social attitudes
and political behaviour?
One of the best ways of understanding and explaining our own political
culture is to compare it with that in other countries. CREST
does this through the
International Social Survey Programme
(ISSP), which comprises around 30 countries worldwide who
collaborate in the design, conduct and analysis of a simultaneous
annual survey on a rotating set of subjects - identifying and
explaining national differences and tracking trends.
Similarly, CREST participates in the
Comparative Study of Electoral
Systems (CSES), which brings together electoral scholars in
many countries, and in an EU-funded network of centres of electoral
research. CREST staff are also active in the European Science
Foundation's development project for a European social survey.
Some CREST findings from its cross-national research:
- British public attitudes towards the role of government
are considerably closer to those in EU countries than they are
to those in the USA, Canada or Australia
- Despite the many differences between the USA and Britain,
their respective political parties appear to be equally effective
in representing the views of their voters
- The affluence of post-war Europe does not seem to have
produced in its citizens any major shift towards 'postmaterialist'
- Britain is among the most 'agnostic' nations in the world,
though less so than Holland; the USA and Northern Ireland are
among the most 'religious'
How can we best measure people's social attitudes and
All survey research data are prone to errors and biases, but they
can be minimised by rigorous design, implementation and analysis.
One of CREST's core activities is the conduct of trials and experiments
that employ different and often innovative measurement techniques
in order to inform and improve both our own work and that of others.
CREST staff contribute to statistical journals and conferences
and continue to make inroads into seemingly intractable problems
of measuring underlying values.
The Economic and Social Research
Council is the UK'ís leading research agency for the social sciences. It is an
independent organisation, established by Royal Charter in 1965, and funded
mainly by central government. Its mission is to provide high quality
research to help government, business and the public understand and improve
the UK'ís economic performance, public policy and quality of life.
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