In late 20th century democracies, a party's standing with the electorate can change very rapidly. Great Britain provides an excellent example - - the massive reversals of fortune experienced by the Conservative and Labour parties since the April, 1992 general election demonstrate how party support can vary greatly over short time periods. Although political scientists long have been interested in such dynamics, efforts to develop theoretical models capable of explaining them have provoked heated controversies, and important disputes remain unresolved. The proposed study is designed to address several of the most significant debates, and thereby illuminate forces shaping the prospects of individual parties and party systems as a whole in Britain and other contemporary mature democracies. Building on prior research, the current investigation is especially timely because it investigates factors affecting party support in Britain at a critical juncture in that country's relationship with the European Union. Analyses show that the set of issues activated by the development of that relationship, as envisaged under the terms of the Maastricht Treaty, has exerted strong effects on public support for British parties and their leaders in the early and mid-1990s. Injected into the political arena by provisions of that treaty, EU issues such as the single European currency will continue to exercise significant effects during the fire-year period (1997-2002) encompassed by the proposed project. The project constitutes an extremely cost-effective means of gathering the time series data essential for investigating the evolution and impact of public attitudes toward the issues posed by the EU in the context of developing and testing rival models of the dynamics of public support for political parties and their leaders. The data are generated by questions placed on 48 consecutive monthly national surveys conducted by the British Gallup organization. Questions asked include the standard British Election study battery on party identification, evaluations and (dis)approval of Britain's membership in the European Union, and evaluations of and emotional reactions to national and personal economic conditions. These questions are supplemented by standard Gallup questions concerning vote intentions, past vote, prime ministerial and opposition party leader approval, the relative competence of major parties to manage the country's economy, and a variety of important sociodemographic characteristics This dataset will be of immense value to other scholars interested in the topic.
