Political campaign
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A political campaign is an organized effort to influence the decision making process within a group. In democracies, a political campaign often brings to mind elections, that are the choosing of decision makers, but it could also include the effort to alter policy within any institution.
Politics is as old as humankind and is not limited to democratic or governmental institutions. Political campaigns in democratic societies date from America and Britain in the late 18th and early 20th centuries. Some examples of political campaigns are: the effort to execute or banish Socrates from Athens in the 5th century BCE, the uprising of petty nobility against John of England in the 13th century, or the recent push to remove Michael Eisner from the helm of The Walt Disney Company.
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Campaign elements
Any political campaign is made up of three elements. The modern mnemonic is message, money, and machine.
Message
The message is a concise statement saying why voters should pick a candidate. Simple examples might include:
- "John Doe is a business man, not a politician. His background in finance means he can bring fiscal discipline to state government."
- "As our society faces a rapid upswing in violent crime and an ever worsening education system, we need leaders who will keep our streets safe and restore accountability to our schools. John Doe is that leader."
- "Over the past four years, John Doe has missed over 50 City Council meetings. How can you lead if you don't show up? Jane Doe won't turn a blind eye to the government."
The message is one of the most important aspects of any political campaign. This has become known as a 'soundbite'. The rest of the campaign will focus on repeating that message, so it's important to get it right.
In a modern political campaign the message must be carefully crafted before it is spread. Major campaigns will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on polling and focus groups in order to figure out what message is needed to reach a majority on Election Day.
Money
Money is often called the "mother's milk of politics." Campaigns have increased in cost over the past few decades and having enough money to pay for the TV ads, direct mail, and staff costs that any campaigns incur requires massive amounts of time and energy.
Fundraising techniques include having the candidate call or meet with large donors, sending direct mail pleas to small donors, and courting interest groups who could end up spending millions on the race if it is significant to their interests.
Machine
Finally, machine represents human capital, the foot soldiers loyal to the cause, the true believers who will carry the word. The machine may have paid staff or may be completely run by volunteer activists. Successful campaigns usually require a campaign manager and some staff members who make strategic and tactical decisions while volunteers and interns canvass door-to-door and make phone calls.
Modern campaigns use all three of the above components to create a successful strategy for victory. No campaign can succeed without attending to all three of them.
History
Political campaigns have existed as long as there have been informed citizens to campaign amongst. Often mass campaigns are started by the less privileged or anti-establishment viewpoints (as against more powerful interests whose first resort is lobbying). The phenomenon of political campaigns are tightly tied to special interest groups and political parties. The first 'modern' campaign is thought to be William Gladstone's Midlothian campaign in the 1880s, although there may be earlier recognisably modern examples from the 19th century.
Democratic societies have regular election campaigns, but political campaigning can occur on particular issues even in non-democracies so long as freedom of expression is allowed.
For the 19th century history of American campaigns, see American Election Campaigns: 19th Century.
Techniques
See also: campaign advertising
A campaign is established with a particular goal in mind; pass or repeal a law, win an election, or similar.
The focus of a campaign is to reach as many people as possible and persuade them to support the goal of the campaign; and hopefully contribute actively to the campaign itself with time or money.
One of the first priorities for the campaign team (which may be as small as one inspired individual, or a heavily-resourced group of professionals) is to establish the campaign message. As described above, this is a brief summary of what the goal is and why the average voter should support it. This draws on techniques from advertising and propaganda.
The message must then be communicated to voters. The avenues available to political campaigns when distributing their messages is limited solely by the law and the imagination of the campaigns' participants. These avenues include:
- The public media (in US parlance 'free media' or 'earned media') may run the story that someone is trying to get elected or to do something about such and such
- The paid media which consists of paid advertisements on TV, the radio, in newspapers, on billboards and, increasingly, the internet.
- Holding protests, rallies and other similar public events (if enough people can be persuaded to come)
- Holding mass meetings with speakers
- Writing directly to members of the public (either via a professional marketing firm or, particularly on a small scale, by volunteers)
- Communicating face-to-face with members of the public, either at events, in the street or on the doorstep
- By cold-calling members of the public over the phone.
- By distributing leaflets or selling newspapers
- Through websites, online communities, and solicited or unsolicited bulk email
- Through a whistlestop tour - a series of brief appearances in several small towns
These methods will be combined into a formal strategy known as the campaign plan. The plan takes account of a campaign's goal, message, target audience, and resources in order to lay out a blueprint for victory.
The campaign will typically seek to identify supporters at the same time as getting its message across. These identified supporters are then sent additional information requesting their active support. They are asked to 'join' the campaign by donating money, doing volunteer work, writing letters to the media, voting in a particular way, and generally assisting the cause.
The ideal of the campaign is for the numbers of people involved, the media presence, the funds available, the hours worked by volunteers and the number of people reached by the message to increase rapidly and to keep increasing until the goal of the campaign is reached.
Ongoing campaigns can become entrenched as institutions, charities or political parties. Equally, existing bodies use campaigns to keep themselves active and relevant.
Modern election campaigns in the UK
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Introduction
(see also Elections in the United Kingdom)
British election campaigns are very much centered around political parties.
The Labour Party, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats aim to contest every seat in mainland Britain, with the exception of the Speaker's seat (to avoid violating his political neutrality).
Plaid Cymru contest seats in Wales and the Scottish National Party and Scottish Socialists contest seats in Scotland.
Each party has a membership and organisation in each parliamentary constituency and each local authority. These local branches are responsible for selection of candidates and for campaigning outside of the four to six week period of the election. The local party organisation is effectively responsible for the local effort in all election campaigns.
This provides a common organisation for candidates of the party at all levels of government, from parish councils to the Westminister and European Parliaments.
Conduct of election campaigns
Candidates depend heavily on the national media profile of their party and party leader. The UK has far more national newspapers and TV than, for instance, the United States. Media attention is therefore heavily focused on political activity in and around Parliament and on national figures.
During the campaign parties deploy a great deal of effort in news management, trying to make sure that media coverage focuses on their core messages. The focus on this in the national party headquarters becomes even greater.
In the UK, broadcast media are explicitly forbidden from taking advertising on matters of political or industrial controversy. This means that national advertising campaigns are effectively restricted to billboards and hoardings. While paid advertisements in newspapers are legal, they are relatively unusual.
While TV advertising is illegal, UK parties are entitled to party election broadcasts and party political broadcasts, typically 5 minute pieces produced by the party and shown on the same day on all five principal TV channels.
For Parliamentary elections candidates are entitled to an election address delivered to the voters by the Post Office. The candidates are responsible for creating the content of the election address, which can take the form of a letter or leaflet.
The campaign 'on the ground' in the election is also of great importance. Parties aim to concentrate resources in their marginal seats.
They aim to contact as many voters as possible either face-to-face (canvassing) or over the telephone, both to introduce candidates and to gain information on the voter's intentions and inclinations. They also produce a variety of newspapers, flyers, newsletters and letters intended to influence voters' opinions.
The campaign culminates on polling day where the parties launch an effort to get out the vote by contacting supporters in person, over the phone or by mail. Most voting is conducted in person at a polling station, but there is a right to vote by post at request (in which case ballot papers are issued by mail in advance and returned in advance). There are experiments in progress with 'all-postal' voting and electronic voting.
Ballot papers are typically counted on the night after close of polls. It is an offence to publish an exit poll while voting is still ongoing.
When ballots for an election have been counted, the election agents of candidates are told the provisional result by the Returning Officer in private. The agents are then able to request a recount of the ballots before the result is publicly announced.
Legal restrictions
As well as restrictions on TV and radio advertising, expenditure on campaigning is strictly limited.
Any campaign has an election expenses limit based on the size of the electorate of the ward or constituency in question. A candidate who spends above the limit can be unseated on the ruling of an election court (if elected) as well as facing a significant fine and/or jail term. (In practice this is very rare).
Expenditure by third parties intended to influence the result of the election is counted as an election expense and must be authorised explicitly by the candidate's agent. This too is an extremely rare practice.
There is also a national expenditure limit for spending by the parties.
There is no limit to the size of a donation made to a party or a campaign. However, donations exceeding £200 a year to a party must be recorded and those exceeding £5000 are published. Donations from overseas sources are not acceptable. Donations of over £50 made directly to an election campaign are published.
Modern election campaigns in the US
Types of Elections
Main article: Elections in the United States
The United States is unusual in that there are dozens of different types of elections and political offices available, including everything from the sewer commission to the President of the United States. Elections happen every year on many different dates in many different areas of the country.
At the local level, candidates and political offices are often officially non-partisan, with candidates of the same political party frequently challenging each other in elections. Some offices, while officially non-partisan are filled in partisan manners with parties endorsing like-minded candidates and then working on their behalf.
National and state elections are almost always partisan.
Process of Campaigning
Compared with the relatively short political campaigns of other democracies such as the United Kingdom, campaigns in the United States can be marathons.
Campaigns start anywhere from several months to several years before election day. The first part of any campaign for a candidate is deciding to run. Prospective candidates will often speak with family, friends, professional associates, elected officials, community leaders, and the leaders of political parties before deciding to run. Candidates are often recruited by political parties and interest groups interested in electing like-minded politicians. During this period, people considering running for office will consider their ability to put together the money, organization, and public image needed to get elected. Many campaigns do not progress past this point as people often do not feel confident in their ability to win.
Once a person decides to run, they will make a public announcement. This announcement could consist of anything from a simple press release to concerned media outlets to a major media event followed by a speaking tour. It is often well-known to many people that a candidate will run prior to an announcement being made. Campaigns will often be announced and then only officially "kicked off" months after active campaigning has begun.
One of the most important aspects of the American political campaign is the ability to raise large sums of money, especially early on in the race. Political insiders and donors often judge candidates based on their ability to raise money. Not raising enough money early on can lead to problems later as donors are not willing to give funds to candidates they perceive to be losing, a perception based on their poor fundraising performance.
Also during this period, candidates travel around the area they are running in and meet with voters; speaking to them in large crowds, small groups, or even one-on-one. This allows voters to get a better picture of who a candidate is than that which they read about in the paper or see on television. Campaigns sometimes launch expensive media campaigns during this time to introduce the candidate to voters, although most wait until closer to election day.
Campaigns often dispatch volunteers into local communities to meet with voters and persuade people to support the candidate. The volunteers are also responsible for identifying supporters, recruiting them as volunteers or registering them to vote if they are not already registered. The identification of supporters will be useful later as campaigns remind voters to cast their votes.
Late in the campaign, campaigns will launch expensive television, radio, and direct mail campaigns aimed at persuading voters to support the candidate. Campaigns will also intensify their grassroots campaigns, coordinating their volunteers in a full court effort to win votes.
Voting in the United States often starts weeks before election day as mail-in ballots are a commonly used voting method. Campaigns will often run two persuasion programs, one aimed at mail-in voters and one aimed at the more traditional poll voters. Final results are sometimes not known for weeks after election day as elections offices receive absentee ballots mailed on the election day (and thus not arriving until up to
Political consultants
Main article: Political consulting
Political campaigns in the United States are not merely a civic ritual and occasion for political debate, but a multi-billion dollar industry, dominated by professional political consultants using sophisticated campaign management tools, to an extent far greater than elsewhere in the world. Though the quadrennial presidential election attracts the most attention, the United States has a huge number of elected offices and there is wide variation between different states, counties, and municipalities on which offices are elected and under what procedures. Moreover, unlike democratic politics in much of the rest of the world, the US has relatively weak parties, with campaigns being controlled by the individual candidates.
Other issues and criticisms
The Cost of Campaign Advertising
American political campaigns have become heavily reliant on broadcast media and direct mail advertising (typically designed and purchased through specialized consultants). Though virtually all campaign media are sometimes used at all levels (even candidates for local office have been known purchase cable TV ads), smaller, lower-budget campaigns are typically more focused on direct mail, low-cost advertising (such as lawn signs), and direct voter contact. This reliance on expensive advertising is a leading factor behind the rise in the cost of running for office in the United States. This rising cost is considered by some to discourage those without well-monied connections, or money themselves, from running for office.
Independent Expenditures
Money is raised and spent not only by candidate's campaign, but also by party committees, political action committees, and other groups (in the 2004 election cycle, much controversy has focused on a new category of organization, 527 groups). This is sometimes done through independent expenditures made in support or opposition of specific candidates but without any candidate's cooperation or approval. Many people feel that the lack of an overt connection between a candidate and third party groups allows one side of a campaign to attack the other side without the first side's candidate being criticized for going negative.
Future Developments
Many political players and commentators agree that American political campaigns are currently undergoing a period of change, due to changing campaign-finance laws, increased use of the internet (which has become a valuable fundraising tool), and the apparently declining effectiveness of television advertising.
Readings
- Neal Blewett. The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910. London: Macmillan, 1972.
- Dinkin, Robert J. Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practice. Westport: Greenwood, 1989.
- John Gerring, Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Lewis L. Gould, Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans. NY: Random House, 2003.
- Gary C. Jacobson. The Politics of Congressional Elections (5th Edition) NY: Longman, 2000.
- Richard Jensen, The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.
- L. Sandy Meisel, Political Parties and Elections in the United States: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1991.
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed. History of American Presidential Elections. 4 vols. New York: Chelsea House, 1971.
- James A. Thurber, Campaigns and Elections American Style. NY Westview Press; 2nd edition, 2004.
See also
- Civics
- Activism
- Lobbying
- American Election Campaigns: 19th Century
- List of democracy and elections-related topics
- lawn sign
- canvassing
- election promise
- Earned Media
- Political campaign staff
- Vote bank