Electoral Strategies and Political Marketing

Research on election campaigning has been left to journalists for the most part and available studies have tended to focus only on one country or even just one party, usually the victor. Despite the central importance of elections to representative democracy, there is no systematic study available of how exactly the parties wage their election campaigns. And these campaigns are becoming ever more expensive and more reliant on new media technologies.
This book is the first-ever crossnational study of campaigning, examining recent elections in nine countries across three continents. The authors are all national experts; the case-studies are based on detailed interviewing and research of the parties. The book starts with a lengthy comparative introduction which shows where this research fits into the available literature. This is followed by the case-studies written according to a common framework. The book concludes with a study on campaign 'effects' and a final chapter which assesses the book's main findings.