The Future of Election Studies

Book excerpt: Election studies have reached a critical point in their development. In 1999, directors of election studies in Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the USA, together with the directors of the European Elections Studies program and the Comparative Study of Election Systems group, met to discuss the conduct of election studies. After the conference, attendees responded to issues raised at the meeting by writing the chapters contained in this volume. There is unanimity among the investigators that studies based upon the Michigan model have reached the limit of what they can achieve. "The Future of Election Studies" considers the nature of new research questions facing electoral scholars, why conventional pre- and/or post-election studies are ill-equipped to address these questions, and how such studies are adapting to meet the challenges faced by scholars today and in the future.