Party campaigns matter, including for those on the extremist fringe

It is widely accepted that the manner in which a party campaigns will shape its overall performance. Yet Matthew Goodwin observes that this has failed to translate into detailed research on party campaigning by parties on the radical and extremist fringe. In a recent project which focused on the 2010 general election campaign by the extreme right British National Party (BNP), he and David Cutts sought to address this gap by examining the electoral impact of this effort at a breakthrough. The project and findings challenge some commonly held wisdom about the campaign, and point to a useful avenue for future research on the radical right in Europe