David Butler (psephologist)
Sir David Edgeworth Butler, is an English social scientist and psephologist, based in Oxford.
Early life
Butler was educated at St Paul's School and New College, Oxford, and then at Princeton University as a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow from 1947 to 1948. He returned to Oxford as a researcher and academic at Nuffield College, where he taught throughout the remainder of his academic career.Career
Between 1956 and 1957, Butler served as personal assistant to HM Ambassador in Washington.Butler is the author of many publications, but perhaps his most important work is the Nuffield Election Studies of each United Kingdom General Election since 1945. Early co-authors included Richard Rose and Anthony King. From 1974 to 2005, this series was co-authored with Dennis Kavanagh. He was a prominent on-screen expert on the BBC's election night coverage from the 1950 election to the 1979 election, and was a co-inventor of the swingometer. He has since appeared as an electoral analyst on various television and radio programmes, including for ITV on the night of the 1997 general election, and Sky News election night coverage in 2001. He also appeared as a guest on the BBC's coverage of both the 2010 and 2015 general elections.
His book, Political Change in Britain: Forces Shaping Electoral Choice, written with US political scientist Donald E. Stokes, brought modern American science treatments to the United Kingdom and is regarded as a pioneering analysis of its kind. His Governing Without a Majority: Dilemmas for Hung Parliaments in Britain provides an analysis of the phenomenon of the hung parliament in Britain.
He is an Emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, and sits on the editorial board of the academic journal Representation. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994. He was appointed CBE in the 1991 Birthday Honours and knighted in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to political science. Butler was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex in 1993.
Since 1973, Butler has been involved in founding and organising the Oxford University Australian Politics Lunch, which "has only one rule, you are not allowed to talk about anything except Australian politics." Notable lunch attendees included Kim Beazley.
Personal life
A cousin was the former Conservative politician Rab Butler.His wife, Professor Marilyn Butler, was a former rector of Exeter College, Oxford, the first woman to head a previously all-male college. They have three sons:
- Daniel Richard Butler who has two children with Bel Crewe ; Jack Badger and Molly Megan.
- Gareth Edgeworth Butler who had two children with Lucy Anderson; Joel Anderson and Sacha Butler.
- Edmund Edgeworth Butler who has three children with Anna Korycinska; Staś, Misia and Zach.
Books on British politics
- D. E. Butler, The Electoral System in Britain 1918–1951.
- D. E. Butler, The Study of Political Behaviour.
- David Butler and Donald Stokes, Political Change in Britain: Forces Shaping Electoral Choice.
- David Butler, Coalitions in British Politics.
- David Butler and A. H. Halsey, Policy and Politics: Essays in Honour of Norman Chester.
- David Butler, Governing Without a Majority: Dilemmas for Hung Parliaments in Britain.
- David Butler, British General Elections Since 1945 – ‘Making Contemporary Britain’ Series.
- David Butler, Andrew Adonis and Tony Travers, Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax.
- David Butler, Vernon Bogdanor and Robert Summer, The Law, Politics and the Constitution: Essays in Honor of Geoffrey Marshall.
Books on international politics
Comparative international studies
- D. E. Butler, Elections Abroad, 1957–1958.
- Vernon Bogdanor and David Butler, Democracy and Elections: Electoral Systems and Their Political Consequences.
- David Butler and D. A. Low, Sovereigns and Surrogates: Constitutional Heads of State in the Commonwealth.
- David Butler and Iain Maclean, Fixing the Boundaries: Defining and Redefining Single-Member Electoral Districts.
Books on American politics
- David Butler and Bruce Cain, Congressional Redistricting: Comparative and Theoretical Frameworks.
Books on Australian politics
- David Butler, The Canberra Model: Essays on Australian Government.
Books on Indian politics
- David Butler, Ashok Lahiri and Prannoy Roy, A Compendium of Indian Elections.
- David Butler, Ashok Lahiri and Prannoy Roy, India Decides: Elections 1952–1989.
Nuffield Election Studies
Nuffield Studies: British General Elections
- D.E. Butler, The British General Election of 1951.
- D.E. Butler, The British General Election of 1955.
- D.E. Butler and Richard Rose, The British General Election of 1959.
- D.E. Butler and Anthony King, The British General Election of 1964.
- ________________________, The British General Election of 1966.
- David Butler and Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, The British General Election of 1970.
- David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of February, 1974.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of October, 1974.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of 1979.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of 1983.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of 1987.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of 1992.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of 1997.
- ____________________________, The British General Election of 2001.
- Dennis Kavanagh and David Butler, The British General Election of 2005.
Nuffield Study: 1975 EEC Referendum
- David Butler and Uwe W. Kitzinger, The 1975 Referendum.
Nuffield Studies: European Elections
- David Butler and David Marquand, British Politics and European Elections.
- David Butler and Paul Jowett, Party Strategies in Britain: A Study of the 1984 European Elections.
- David Butler and Martin Westlake, British Politics and European Elections, 1994.
- ___________________________, British Politics and European Elections, 1999.
- ___________________________, British Politics and European Elections, 2004.
''British Political Facts'' series
- David Butler and Jennie Freeman, British Political Facts, 1900–1960.
- ___________________________, British Political Facts, 1900–1967, 2nd ed.
- ___________________________, British Political Facts, 1900–1968, 3rd ed..
- David Butler and Anne Sloman, British Political Facts, 1900–1975, 4th ed..
- _________________________, British Political Facts, 1900–1979, 5th ed..
- David Butler and Gareth Butler, British Political Facts, 1900–1985, 6th ed..
- ________________________, British Political Facts, 1900–1994, 7th ed..
- ________________________, Twentieth-Century British Political Facts, 1900–2000, 8th ed..
- ________________________, British Political Facts Since 1979, 9th ed..
- ________________________, British Political Facts, 10th ed..
American Enterprise Institute ''At the Polls'' comparative studies series
- David Butler and Austin Ranney, Referendums: A Comparative Study of Practice and Theory.
- David Butler, Howard R. Penniman and Austin Ranney, Democracy at the Polls: A Comparative Study of Competitive National Elections.
- David Butler and Austin Ranney, Electioneering: A Comparative Study of Continuity and Change.
- ______________________________, Referendums Around the World: The Growing Use of Direct Democracy.
Book chapters
- D.E. Butler, ‘Appendix III: The Relation of Seats to Votes’, in R. B. McCallum and Alison Readman, The British General Election of 1945, pp. 277–92.
- ___________, ’Appendix: An Examination of the Results’, H. G. Nicholas, The British General Election of 1950, pp. 306–33.
- Anonymous, ‘Section III, Foreign History, Chapter II: The United States of America’, in The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1952, Vol. 194, pp. 176–93.
- _________, ‘Section III, Foreign History, Chapter II: The United States of America’, in The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1953, Vol. 195, pp. 160–74.
- _________, ‘Section III, Foreign History, Chapter II: The United States of America’, in The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for theYear 1954, Vol. 196, pp. 168–86.
- David Butler, ‘The Study of British Elections’, in J. S. Bromley and E. H. Kossmann, Britain and the Netherlands: Papers Delivered to the Oxford-Netherlands Historical Conference, 1959, pp. 221–30.
- David E. Butler, ‘The Study of Political Behaviour in Britain’, in Austin Ranney, Essays on the Behavioral Study of Politics, pp. 209–16.
- David Butler, ‘Thoughts on the 1972 Election’, in Henry Mayer, Labor to Power: Australia’s 1972 Election, pp. 1–5.
- ____________, ‘By-Elections and Their Interpretation’, in Chris Cook and John Ramsden, By-Elections in British Politics, pp. 1–12.
- ____________, ‘Survey of the Voting: Election of Haves and Have-Nots’, in Times Guide to the House of Commons, June 1987, pp. 254–56.
- ____________, ‘Preface’, Victor Lal, Fiji: Coups in Paradise – Race, Politics and Military Intervention, pp. 1–10.
- ____________, ‘Elections in Britain’, in Peter Catterall, Contemporary Britain: An Annual Review, 1991, pp. 59–63.
- ____________, ‘The Presidency and American Constitutionalism’, in Kenneth W. Thompson, The American Presidency: Perspectives from Abroad, Volume III.
- ____________, ‘Voting Behaviour and the Party System’, in Bill Jones and Lynton Robins, Two Decades in British Politics: Essays to Mark Twenty-one Years of the Politics Association, 1969–90.
- ____________, ‘The Republican Question in Australia’, in Kate Darian-Smith, Public Lectures in Australian Studies, pp. 1–15.
- ____________, ‘Polls and Elections’, in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi and Pippa Norris, Comparing Discrepancies: Elections and Voting in Global Perspective, pp. 236–53.
- ____________, ‘Putting Turnout into Perspective’, in Virginia Gibbons, The People Have Spoken – UK Elections: Who Votes and Who Doesn’t, pp. 11–13.
- ____________, ‘Foreword’, in Dennis Kavanagh and Philip Cowley, The British General Election of 2010, pp. xiii–xiv.
Peer-reviewed articles
- David Butler, ‘Trends in British By-Elections’, Journal of Politics, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 396–407.
- ____________, ‘Convention and Conference’, Cambridge Journal, Vol. IV, No. 4, pp. 195–206.
- ____________, ‘La Relation entre les Sièges Obtenus et les Voix Recueillies par les Partis dans les Elections Britanniques’, Revue française de science politique, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 265–69.
- ____________, ‘Voting Behaviour and its Study in Britain’, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. VI, No. 2, pp. 93–103.
- ____________, ‘Counting the Votes: Some Comments’, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. VI, No. 2, pp. 155–57.
- ____________, ‘Some Recent Studies of Voting: Three Styles in Psephology’, Political Studies, Vol. III, No. 2, pp. 143–47.
- ____________, ‘An Englishman's Reflections on the Change of Administration’, American Scholar, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 517–27.
- ____________, ‘A Comment on Professor Rasmussen’s Article’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. XVII, No. 4, pp. 455–57.
- Michael Kahan, David Butler and Donald Stokes, ‘On the Analytical Division of Social Class’, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. XVII, No. 2, pp. 122–32.
- David Butler, 'Instant History,' New Zealand Journal of History, Vol, 2, No. 2, pp. 107–14.
- ____________, ‘Some Thoughts on Ministerial Responsibility—The VIP Planes Affair’, Australian Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 36–40.
- ____________, ‘The Electoral Advantage of Being in Power’, Politics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp.16–20.
- David Butler, Arthur Stevens and Donald Stokes, ‘The Strength of the Liberals Under Different Electoral Systems’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 22, Issue 1, pp. 10–15.
- ____________, ‘Thoughts on the 1972 Election’, Politics, Vol. 8, Issue 1, pp. 1–5.
- ____________, ‘Ministerial Responsibility in Australia and Britain’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 26, Issue 2, pp. 403–14.
- ____________, ‘The Australian Crisis of 1975’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 29, Issue 9, pp. 201–10.
- ____________, ‘Politics and the Constitution: 20 Questions Left by Remembrance Day’, Current Affairs Bulletin, Vol. 52, No. 10.
- ____________, ‘The Renomination of M.P.s: A Note’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 31, Issue 2, pp. 210–12.
- Stuart, N. L. Webb, and D. Butler, ‘Public Opinion Polls ’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 142, Part 4, pp. 443–67.
- David Butler, ‘British General Elections’, SSRC Newsletter: Social Science Research Council, 50.
- ____________, ‘Philip Williams’, PS: Political Science & Politics, Vol. 18, Issue 2, pp. 294–95.
- ____________, ‘India’s Winter Election’, Representation, Vol. 25, Issue 98, pp. 1–2.
- David Butler and Bruce E. Cain, ‘Reapportionment: A Study in Comparative Government’, Electoral Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 197–213.
- David Butler, ‘The Benn Archive’, Contemporary Record, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 13–14
- ____________, ‘General Elections Since 1945’, Contemporary Record, Vol. 3, Issue 1, pp. 18–19.
- David Butler and Stephen D. Van Beek, ‘Why Not Swing? Measuring Electoral Change’, PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 178–84.
- Clive Bean and David Butler, ‘Uniformity in Australian Electoral Patterns: The 1990 Federal Election in Perspective’, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 26, Issue 1, pp. 127–36.
- ________________________, ‘Variability and Uniformity: A Response’, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 26, Issue 2, pp. 348–52.
- David Butler, ‘The Redrawing of Parliamentary Boundaries in Britain’, British Elections and Parties Yearbook, Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 5–12.
- David Butler and Roger Mortimore, ‘A Level Playing-Field for British Elections?’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 45, Issue 2, pp. 153–63.
- David Butler, ’The Plant Report 1993: The Third Report of Labour's Working Party on Electoral Systems’, Representation, Vol. 31, Issue 116, pp. 77–79.
- ____________, ’The Legacy of Stephen King-Hall’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 47, Issue 4, pp. 498–500.
- Robert Hazell, Nicole Smith, James Cornford and David Butler, ‘Reforming the Constitution: The Work of the Constitution Unit’, RSA Journal, Vol. 144, No. 5475, pp. 41–50.
- David Butler, ‘Notes on Recent Elections: Australia’, Electoral Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 411–14.
- David Butler, Chris Lawrence‐Pietroni, Stephen Twigg and Philip Norton, ‘Roundtable on the Wakeham Report’, Representation, Vol. 37, Issue 2, pp. 99–106.
- David Butler and Sarah Butt, ‘Seats and Votes: A Comment’, Representation, Vol. 40, Issue 3,, pp. 169–72.
- David Butler, ‘Reflections on Parliamentary Democracy’, Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 57, Issue 4, pp. 734–43.
Books on Butler
- Dennis Kavanagh, 'David Butler', in Dennis Kavanagh, Electoral Politics: Essays to Mark the Retirement of David Butler.
- Michael Crick, Sultan of Swing: The Life of David Butler.