Advertising and the Image of Politicians in Evolving and Established Democracies

Abstract

The article¹ analyzes the constructivist and realist approaches to research on voting behavior in presidential elections in evolving (Poland) and established (U.S.) democracies. The influence of a politician's image on affective attitudes toward the candidate is stressed in the first approach; the other approach stresses the role of affect in forming such an image. Using experimental data from the 2000 presidential elections in each country, the research applied structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis to show the best way to use image construction to influence voting behavior and, in the realist approach, the key role of affects as the starting point for designing and creating politicans' images. The results of the research also show that Polish and American voters perceive slightly differently the socio-political reality created by the media, but in both countries political advertising plays an important role in creating political images.     

Spinning on the Conference Circuit

ABSTRACT

Making sure political parties receive comprehensive and favourable media coverage is a full-time activity that extends beyond the period of election campaigns. In the era of the permanent campaign the annual autumn conferences of the main British political parties represent a publicity opportunity. The undivided media coverage of these events provides a platform for the political parties to sell themselves and their policies to a national audience beyond the conference venue, but also presents considerable risks. To ensure that they successfully exploit this publicity opportunity the party managers, with the aid of communication experts, both control the conferences and implement media management strategies. This article examines how the parties have adapted their conferences to sell themselves and their policies. It highlights the public relations techniques that are employed to ensure that party policy gains the desired positive news coverage and that the coverage of potentially damaging events is minimized. It concludes by considering the impact this marketing driven logic has on the party conferences and their media coverage.     

The French elections of 2017: shaking the disease?

The results of the 2017 presidential and legislative elections represent an important shift in French politics. For the first time in the history of the 5th French Republic, the candidates of the two traditional governing parties were disqualified during the first round of the presidential elections. The duel between a centrist and a radical-right candidate in the second round of the elections constitutes an unprecedented configuration. Moreover, there was a record parliamentary renewal after the 2017 legislative elections, as well as a feminisation of the National Assembly with 38.8 per cent of women among the deputies. At the same time, abstention for the legislative elections reached a new record high. Overall, the results of the French elections in 2017 could point to major shifts in the party system, as well as to a renewal of the French political elite, and to an enduring malaise between French citizens and their political representatives.     

湘江战役与毛泽东军事路线确立——整体视域下湘江战役与中国特色革命道路

湘江战役的反思和红军过广西的反思实践,通过总结历史教训,为红军确立正确的军事路线开启了一个窗口。这对在反思的基础上构建红军的整体军事战略思想,推动毛泽东军事思想从"枪杆子出政权"、"上山"军事理论到"积极防御"军事理论的转变提供了实践基础。     

名人虚假广告民事责任

名人虚假广告是虚假广告现象的一个比较突出的问题。在《广告法》等相关法律没有明确规定的情况下,对该现象的规治就显得比较困难。有学者认为名人因为不是广告合同的当事人而不应承担责任,这实际上违背了民法的诚信原则、欺诈理论,侵权理论等,也即,名人做虚假广告在一定情况下要承担责任。     

公安思想政治工作是夺取严打整治斗争全胜的法宝

实践证明,公安思想政治工作是严打整治斗争的重要生命线,是夺取这场斗争胜利的法宝.从这样一个观点出发,我们大力改进思想教育机制、改进队伍管理机制、教育训练机制和干部管理机制,充分发挥了公安思想政治工作的功能作用,保证了严打整治斗争的全面胜利.     

再论"严打"的属性定位与价值分析

“严打”作为一种颇具中国特色的“非常刑事策略”,自1983年至今,在打击严重刑事犯罪,维护社会治安方面功不可没。“严打”首先体现的是一种“重典治乱”,同时也发挥了刑罚对犯罪的预防功能。“严打”的现实意义在于迅速遏制犯罪势头,其长远价值在于建立起一种严格的执法环境,树立起严格执法、公正执法的价值理念。在现阶段,开展“严打”斗争仍具有现实意义,但要处理好效益与程序的正义之间的关系。     

Regulating political advertising in the EU and USA: a human rights perspective

Underlying the American model of political campaign communication are the US Constitutional guarantees of free speech, which secure the rights of citizens to support political candidates of their choosing and express that support in various forms, from bumper stickers to television advertising. Courts have at times struck down measures regulating political advertising, including limits on the amounts of such advertising and the amounts of funds which candidates, parties and individuals may spend on election‐related speeches and advertising as infringements of these rights. With few exceptions, in the USA, government may not limit the number of spots a candidate airs in an election. In Europe, international norms concerning free expression and fair elections appear in a number of legal instruments, including, most recently, the UK's Human Rights Act 1998 and the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. This paper compares the role and development of American First Amendment doctrines in limiting restrictions on political advertising in the USA with the development of comparable norms of free expression under the European Convention on Human Rights, European Union treaties and legislation and national laws of the member states and accession countries. In particular, this paper addresses the validity and enforceability of European legal limits on number, timing, placement, quantity and content of political advertisements under applicable human rights rules and similar regulations. The paper concludes that (1) a combination of European legal instruments, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Community Treaty, the European Community's ‘Television Without Frontiers’ Directives and the Council of Europe's Convention on Transfrontier Television offer protections of a kind and type which broadly track the protections of the USA's First Amendment; that (2) it seems that governmental justifications for restricting these freedoms are more readily accepted in Europe than they might be in courts in the USA; and that (3) certain restrictions on political advertising identified in previous studies as existing throughout Europe will face increased judicial scrutiny and some of them are probably illegal under European Human Rights principles. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Budget Rhetoric in Presidential Campaigns from 1952 to 2000

We offer a theory to identify the determinants of presidential campaign rhetoric related to the federal budget. The theory builds on the literature dealing with issue ownership, candidate strategy, retrospective voting, and voter preferences to generate eight hypotheses about the use of budget rhetoric. To test these hypotheses, over 800 campaign speeches from the major party presidential nominees from 1952 to 2000 are content analyzed. The content analysis generates measures of both the volume and tone of budget rhetoric. Volume is driven primarily by the objective balance of the budget and subjective importance given to it by voters and a conditional effect involving budget balance, incumbency, and partisanship. Tone is more complex, with positive rhetoric determined mostly by the budget balance and partisanship and overstated rhetoric shaped solely by the salience of the budget to the electorate. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.     

Influencing votes,winning elections: clientelist practices and private funding of electoral campaigns in Albania

ABSTRACT

The present article is part of a broader effort to understand and analyse the relationship between formal and informal norms and institutions in the Balkans. Free and fair elections are a central component of any functioning democracy and, in the case of Albania, an essential element of its EU accession process. Elections can also be affected by political clientelism, which puts their outcomes’ credibility into question. Political clientelism is a principal sector of informal relations and practices and informal and/or illegal funding of electoral campaigns are identified as its key mechanisms. This article addresses a number of issues related to clientelist practices and private funding of electoral campaigns, focusing on the general parliamentary elections of June 2017. The main research question investigates the ways in which private funding of electoral campaigns works in practice. Based on data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, reports on the electoral process, and other secondary sources, we argue that informal clientelist practices permeating private funding of electoral campaigns enable political parties to further and strengthen clientelist relations and to influence the electoral result.