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A political campaign is an organized effort to influence the decision making process within a group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referenda are decided. Political campaigns also include organized efforts to alter policy within any institution. Politics is as old as humankind and is not limited to democratic or governmental institutions. 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. 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: The message is one of the most important aspects of any political campaign. The habit of modern Western media outlets (especially radio and television) of taking short excerpts from speeches has resulted in the creation of the term "soundbite". 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 opinion polls and focus groups in order to figure out what message is needed to reach a majority on Election Day. Money Jesse M. Unruh famously called money 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 many 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. Large modern campaigns use all three of the above components to create a successful strategy for victory. History
Techniques See also: Campaign advertising A campaign team (which may be as small as one inspired individual, or a heavily-resourced group of professionals) must consider how to communicate the message of the campaign, recruit volunteers, and raise money. Campaign advertising draws on techniques from commercial advertising and propaganda. The avenues available to political campaigns when distributing their messages is limited by the law, available resources, and the imagination of the campaigns' participants. These avenues include: These methods are often 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. Ongoing campaigns can become entrenched as institutions, charities, or political parties. Conversely, existing organizations may use campaigns to remain active, or to advance interests. Modern election campaigns in the UK
Introduction Main article: 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 (canvassing) either face-to-face 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 Main article: Elections in the United States Types of Elections 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, major 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 for major office 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 major 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. Campaigns for minor office may be relatively simple and inexpensive - talking to local newspapers, giving out lawn signs, and greeting people in the local square. Political consultants 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. 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. Alternatives to campaigning Not all democratic elections involve political campaigning. Indeed, some democratic elections specifically rule out campaigning on the grounds that campaigning may compromise the democratic character of the elections (Abizadeh 2005), perhaps because of campaigns' susceptibility to the influence of money, or to the influence of special interest groups. Readings See also Techniques and traditions General topics Examples | |||||||||||
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