The Anxious Voter

Will scare tactics work?

BBC Radio 4's Analysis: The Anxious Voter, was broadcast on Thursday, 28 April, 2005 at 20:30 BST.

Read the programme transcript

" Be afraid, Be very afraid" could have been the motto for last year's American Presidential contest which was dubbed " the fear election".

George Bush told voters to be very fearful of the unknown enemy while his opponents told them to be very fearful of George Bush. At the time many commentators as well as politicians in the UK dismissed the US contest as tactical scaremongering.

But now that OUR general election campaign is in full swing, it seems that the UK is heading the same way with politicians highlighting issues from MRSA to terrorism, immigration, crime and anti social behaviour - all of which have fear at their core.

Politicians tell us sometimes that our fears are misplaced, sometimes that they are understated. But they seem happy to make use of one of our most fundamental human instincts in an election campaign. Why do they do that and what do they hope to gain from it?

In Analysis this week, John Kampfner scours the election debate for clues why fear seems to play such a major role in the political battleground and asks whether appeals to insecurity and anxiety make people more or less likely to vote.

Among those taking part in an entirely politician-free programme are: Professors Joanna Bourke and Frank Furedi who have published widely on the history and culture of fear respectively; the think-tanks Demos, Migration Watch and The Institute of Ideas as well as Lord Stevens who until the end of January was the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Presenter: John Kampfner
Producer: Ingrid Hassler
Editor: Nicola Meyrick