`the essays focus largely but not entirely on British elections. More strikingly uniform is the high quality of the several chapters ... a thoughtful placement of Butler's work in the British empirical tradition ... Such treatment, is consistent with insightful understanding vividly expressed'British Politics Group Newsletter

• David Butler and the study of elections, Dennis Kavanagh; political change in Britain, Anthony King; press partisanship - into the 90s, Colin Seymour-Ure; dialogue of the deaf? the elite and the electorate in mid-century Britain, Hugh Berrington; the natives are restless - the reporting of British by-elections, David McKie; expressive versus instrumental voting, Richard Rose and Ian McAllister; valence politics, Donald Stokes; electoral pacts in Britain since 1886, Vernon Bogdanor; the British electoral system - fixture without foundation, John Curtice; divided party control in the United States, Austin Ranney; the electoral systems researcher as detective - probing Rae's suspect "differential proposition" on list PR, Arend Lijphart; Northern Ireland 1921-29 - a failed consociational experience, Cornelius O'Leary.