Political Campaigns in a Democracy
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As the number of democratic nations has grown by leaps and bounds worldwide, there has never been a greater premium on effective campaign and political communications practices. Not surprisingly, the world typically turns to the United States for best practices in the inter-related worlds of political campaigning, communicating, and marketing. This is a direct result of the US's role as the first modern democratic republic, and its centuries long history in these fields. Having enjoyed a substantial head start on the rest of the world's democracies, the United States offers an invaluable resource for nascent democratic nations to examine. By studying the lessons that American political parties have learned concerning the best methods for organizing campaigns, reaching out to voters, and mobilizing political bases, political parties in developing democracies can more efficiently organize their actions to maximize their impact on the electorate. While there are many lessons that can be learned from the American model, it is important to realize that the cultural, social, and economic reality of the United States are not equaled by many states in the world. When attempting to draw conclusions about campaigning and communicating with the public from the American model, it is important to understand how one's society relates to the United States. This is especially true in the developing world. South Africa, for example, features a vastly different socio-economic and po
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st if not all of the electorate can be reached via television, centrally directed campaigns are the only viable option in a national election. In developing nations, however, where small percentages of the public are reachable by television, political parties must be able to fuse together a centrally directed campaign with direct campaigning in order to reach voters who do not have access to mass media. This presents many challenges, which we will look into in the following section.
External Political CommunicationùDisseminating the Message
Broadly speaking, there are four basic types of communications outlets that campaigns can utilize to disseminate their message:
Mail
Person to Person
Telephone
Mass Media (TV, Radio, Newspapers, Internet)
The particular mix of these four media outlets that should be used by the political party vary widely depending on the socio-economic realities of the country they are situated in. In the United States, for example, television is far and away the most effective way to reach the public. In Mozambique, where only 25 percent of the public is literate and a smaller percentage own televisions, radio and face-to-face interaction are more efficient means of reaching the public (NDI,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Election Day, South Africa, Political Communication, South African, Campaigning Overview, Newspapers Internet, Importance Message, Party Organization, , Positioning/Issue Spots, political communication, political party, political parties, south africa, party's message, south african, local organizers, external political, press releases, media outlets, external political communication, political communication campaign, internal political communication, political communication south, south african cities,
Approximate Word count = 6152
Approximate Pages = 25 (250 words per page)
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