ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the performance of election polls in a number of late-capitalist societies in the context of Complex Politics. It deals with the British General Election of 1992, in which the opinion polls were widely criticised when they failed to accurately forecast the outcome of the election, erring by 8.5% on the Labour-Conservative gap. The experience of the British General Election in 1992, the opinion pollsters has two occasions in which to demonstrate the effectiveness of the performance of their national polls: at the European Assembly Elections of 1994, and at the General Election in 1997. There are a number of examples in mainland Europe where the pollsters have failed to anticipate election outcomes. The public's scepticism of opinion polling is reinforced by their awareness of the strong links which exist between some of the major polling agencies and the leading political parties.
