Andrea Römmele

Changing Campaign Communications: A Party-Centered Theory of Professionalized Campaigning

Models explaining the rise of American-style or so-called postmodern campaigning have focused primarily on changes taking place at the systemic level. While these models help explain variance across countries where these techniques are used, they do not explain variations among individual parties. Given that not all parties adopt these tactics and techniques at the same time, the authors argue that there are party-specific variables that need to be taken into account when understanding the shift to the new campaigning era. Building on the existing literature, the authors identify the key traits of what they term professionalized campaigning and the variables that prime a party to adopt it. The article goes on to develop a causal model, based on external and internal party events or shocks, that explains why a particular party would embrace this new style of campaigning. Finally, the authors operationalize their theory and develop indicators to measure the key variables for empirical testing.

Political Parties, Party Communication and New Information and Communication Technologies

The article provides a theoretical overview of how parties in modern democracies are using the Internet to perform a range of key functions, such as opinion formation, interest mediation and party organization. Drawing on the party goals’ literature and classic party typologies, the central argument of the article is that new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are utilized in different ways by different types of political parties. While some parties stress the downward dissemination of information via new ICTs, others emphasize their interactive and targeting possibilities. The findings of the articles included in this Special Issue are profiled and assessed for the extent to which they provide empirical support for the strategies outlined.

Measuring the Professionalization of Political Campaigning

This article develops and tests a new multidimensional index — CAMPROF — that is designed to measure and compare parties use of professionalized campaign techniques during elections. Based on the extant literature, we identify and operationalize the essential components of this new form of campaigning to create a 30-point index that is applied to the case of the 2005 German federal election. The results show the CAMPROF Index to be: (1) successful in capturing variance in parties engagement in professionalized campaigning, and (2) capable of producing rankings that correspond to a priori expectations about how well the parties would perform. The findings are significant in that they provide preliminary confirmation of the Indexs capacity to measure the concept of professionalized campaigning as well as providing new insights into the party-level dynamics that may be driving the current wave of campaign modernization. The opportunities and challenges involved in wider application of the measure to cross-national research are discussed.

Introduction: representative democracy and the Internet

Electronic Democracy analyses the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) within representative democracy, such as political parties, pressure groups, new social movements and executive and legislative bodies. Arguing for the validity of social perspective in theory building, it examines how representative democracies are adapting to new ICTs. It features a number of comparative studies focusing on the UK, the US, Sweden, Germany, Korea and Australia.

German parties and internet campaigning in the 2002 federal election

This article examines German national parties use of the Internet in the 2002 federal election. Its main goals are to determine what the parties were doing in their online campaigns and how far their use of the Internet can be understood in terms of two party-specific variables – organisational size and primary goal. These questions are of significance given the relatively limited study of parties use of the net in Germany in the comparative literature on this topic. Also, research on parties use of the Web across countries has suggested that while context does produce differences in approach, partyspecific factors also play a major role in determining online strategy. The article attempts to investigate these questions systematically by examining nine German parties use of the Internet (specifically websites, e-mail, and intra-nets) using questionnaire data from national party personnel and content analysis of web pages. Our findings show that while the divide between major and minor parties can be seen quite clearly in the German context in terms of website quality and visibility, evidence to support the impact of party outlook in shaping parties online strategy can also be found. In addition, the study reveals that major parties are now beginning to take the Internet very seriously as a communication tool, particularly in terms of election campaigning.

Chasing the Digital Wave: International Perspectives on the Growth of Online Campaigning

ABSTRACT In this series of articles we present new insight into the drivers, quality, and impact of web campaigning up to date by reflecting on the uptake, maturity, and impact of internet campaigning in elections around the world. Specifically, we use the contributions to address four key topics that have been addressed by the web campaigns literature since its origins. First, diffusion and how widespread web campaigning has become; second, the issue of normalization and how far web campaigns favour the already powerful and well resourced; third, we discuss whether campaign style is changing and becoming more interactive and participatory as a result of the new digital technology; finally, we provide new evidence on the question of voter mobilization and the extent to which the web appears to be a voter generator for political parties and candidates. While answers vary according to context it is clear that web campaigning is common practice in democratic elections, although the U.S. retains its leading role for innovation and experimentation. The bigger players still dominate but social media platforms appear to be a more equal playing field. Opportunities for interaction and participation remain under-used, which is even more of an oversight by parties given that it does web campaigns do appear linked to stronger voter support.

Down Periscope: the Search for High-Tech Campaigning at the Local Level in the 2002 German Federal Election

Abstract This paper examines the growth of high-tech campaigning techniques among local level actors in Germany by studying website adoption among parties and candidates in the 2002 federal election. Arguing that election websites form a key tool of the new high-tech campaign trade we investigate the extent of their use at the local level as well as some of the triggers to their uptake and possible longer-term effects on campaign style, in terms of interactivity and independence from central party control. Our findings reveal that this form of high-tech campaigning is prominent across Germany and is promoted by factors linked to higher levels of local campaign activity more generally, i.e., party resources, competition and incumbency. Content analysis of sites, however, reveals little support for the notion that election websites are introducing a more participatory style of campaigning. Also, while some parties appear to be inclined toward controlling local actors message through the medium, for the most part, candidates and parties appear to be left alone to develop their online profile.

Beyond the Base? Political Parties, Citizen Activists, and Digital Media Use in the 2009 German Federal Election Campaign

ABSTRACT This article examines who sees party and campaign information through social media, as well as which people share this information through social media. Using the 2009 German Longitudinal Election Study, we find that younger party members and strong partisans are more likely to see party and campaign information through social media, regardless of their income, education, or gender. In addition, party members are significantly more likely to share party and campaign information through social media. These results are promising because they suggest that parties can engage younger voters through social media sites. Moreover, they show that when parties post campaign information online, they make it easier for party members to mobilize people who might otherwise not be exposed to campaign information.

Personen oder Inhalte? Politikvermittlung in deutschen Wahlkämpfen

Die Debatte um die Personalisierung von Wahlkampfen scheint mit jedem neuen Wahlkampf einen weiteren Hohepunkt zu erreichen; in der Bundesrepublik haben vor allem die beiden TV-Duelle zwischen Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schroder und seinem Herausforderer, dem bayerischen Ministerprasidenten Edmund Stoiber, diese Debatte weiter zugespitzt. „Der oder ich?“ Diese Frage stellte Stoiber in einer Wahlkampfrede anlasslich des Wahlkampfauftaktes der Union.1

Professionalisierung bundesdeutscher Wahlkämpfe, oder: Wie amerikanisch kann es werden?

Wahlkampfe wurden immer amerikanischer gefuhrt, ja: von der volligen Amerikanisierung des deutschen Wahlkampfes ist mittlerweile zu lesen, nicht ohne kulturkritische Untertone. Andere halten dieser Charakterisierung entgegen, dass sich zwar tatsachlich die Wahlkampffuhrung in den vergangenen zehn bis zwolf Jahren dramatisch verandert habe, dass dies aber in erster Linie das Resultat von gesellschaftlichen Modernisierungs- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Professionalisierungsprozessen darstelle und gerade nicht die blinde Ubernahme von Vorbildern aus den USA bedeute. Ob Amerikanisierung oder Modernisierung, einig sind sich die Beobachter, darin, dass sich auch in Deutschland die Wahlkampffuhrung im Umbruch befindet. Der Trend zur Personalisierung, zum Themen- und Ereignismanagement und zur zielgruppenspezifischen Wahleransprache ist unverkennbar. Dieser Text setzt sich mit diesen Entwicklungen auseinander und gliedert sich in drei Teile: In einem ersten Schritt werden die wichtigsten Elemente professionalisierter1 Wahlkampfe dargelegt und diskutiert. Neben den Aspekten der Personalisierung und der Rolle und Bedeutung von Spin-Doctors wird das Augenmerk auf Marketing-Techniken gerichtet. Besonders hervorgehoben werden hier die neuen (direkten) Kommunikationsmoglichkeiten, die den politischen Akteuren zur Verfugung stehen. Welche Botschaften ubermitteln Parteien an ihre Zielgruppen?