ineffective; without a cogently stated message, the most qualified candidate can fall by the wayside. Lastly, we will relate the best practices we have identified to the political reality in South Africa and make concrete recommendations concerning how they can be applied given the uniqueness of the South African political landscape.
Part I: Party OrganizationùInternal Political Communication
Before we can understand how campaigns should best be organized, it is important to examine the overall goals of political parties. Vibrant political parties are key to functioning of any democracy. At heart, political parties are organizations that contest elections in order to gain some measure of control over a government and its institutions and agencies. In order to accomplish this, political parties typically aggregate social interests to create a winning coalition of voters. In order to forge these coalitions, political parties must be able to analyze and critique government policies and offer their own policy alternatives. Political parties must also be able to identify, cultivate, train, and advance political leaders who will be their candidates and take on the rather sizable job of governing (NDI, 3). Each of these things are reliant on the creation of efficient intra-party communication within the political party to operate most successfully.
In order to succeed, a political party must unite the trinity of politics: a motivated group of members, committed and informed leaders, and practical ideas for improving government. Any party that fails at one of these three items will not be able to achieve widespread political victory. However, even a party that enjoys all three of these attributes can fail if it is not organized efficiently and effectively. If the party does not have a clearly defined and implemented decision making structure, if members of the party do not understand their responsibilities and roles wi...