Informing British Democracy: The Impact of the British Election Study on the Media, Polling, and Political Party Decision-making

Public summary

The University of Manchester (UoM) has led the British Election Study (BES) since 2013. In so doing, it has supported the functioning of British democracy by: (1) improving media coverage of elections, putting academic analysis at its heart; (2) embedding research into political polling, thereby placing political polling on a firmer methodological footing and facilitating methodological improvements to polling; and (3) shaping the behaviour of key political actors, enabling better-informed political decisions through the provision of reliable data to the two main political parties in the UK.

Impact date	2014 → 2020
Category of impact	Political impacts