The (In)stability of Voters’ Perceptions of Competence and Associative Issue Ownership: The Role of Media Campaign Coverage

Recent work has suggested that issue ownership has a competence and an associative dimension and that both dimensions are less stable than originally assumed. This study is the first attempt to directly compare the stability and change of voters’ perceptions on both dimensions. Using data from the 2015 Swiss Election Study, linking data from a combined panel/rolling cross-section survey with an extensive media analysis, this study finds that voters are more likely to maintain their issue ownership perceptions if the party they identify as the issue owner before the campaign receives a higher share of media campaign coverage. This stabilizing effect is conditional on the importance of the issue for the voter, and it is stronger for voters’ competence evaluations than for their party-issue associations, which proved to be more stable. Thus, the results confirm the literature’s previously untested assumption that voters’ associative ownership perceptions are more stable than their competence ownership evaluations.     

Mobilising support when the stakes are high: Mass emails affect constituent-to-legislator lobbying

Mass emails are frequently used by advocacy groups to mobilise supporters to lobby legislators. But how effective are they at inducing constituent-to-legislator lobbying when the stakes are high? We test the efficacy of a large-scale email campaign conducted by the UK's main anti-Brexit organisation. In 2019, the group prominently displayed a ‘Write to your MP’ tool on their website and assigned 119,362 supporters represented by legislators with incongruent views to one of four email messages encouraging them to write to their MP or a control condition (no email). Messages varied across two factors: whether the MP's incongruent position was highlighted, and if urgency was emphasised. We find that 3.4 per cent of treatment subjects contacted their representative, compared to 0.1 per cent of those in the control, representing an additional 3,344 emails sent to MPs. We show that there was no substitution away from the most frequently used online legislator contact platform in the United Kingdom. While, on average, position and urgency cues had no marginal effects above the standard email, the most engaged supporters were more mobilised when informed that their MP held incongruent views. This study shows that advocacy groups can use low-cost communication techniques to mobilise supporters to lobby representatives when the stakes are high.     

Reforming campaign finance in the nineties: a case study of Spain

This paper analyzes the reforms of the Spanish electoral finance regulatory system during the nineties. We present a number of indexes to measure the impact of the reforms on parties and campaign spending. We also suggest a game theoretical model to explain why the two main parties agreed to support the legal changes in the nineties. A principal outcome of the reforms was to establish an effective limit to campaign expenses. In our view this would have not been feasible in the late seventies or eighties. Then the parties were trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma in which each party had to spend more in order to prevent other parties from gaining electoral advantage. But in the nineties the main parties, ridden with problems of soaring electoral debts and disgruntled voters, used the reform of political finance as a coordination device to achieve a Pareto efficient equilibrium.     

An Insider's View of Athens Municipal Election Campaigns

Abstract

Political communications in Greece have developed over the last 20 years. Within this period, this development has been both rapid and “condensed.” The evolution between one election and the next is very obvious to the expert. The municipal elections, those “mini-confrontations,” became the testing grounds for techniques and methodologies to be tested before being used in national campaigns. Of those confrontations there is no more characteristic than those of Athens, the capital city of Greece in terms of political communications. Today, political communications in Greece have reached Western, European standards.     

略论彭德怀在中央苏区第一次反“围剿”中的贡献

在中央苏区第一次反＂围剿＂战役中,彭德怀多次参加红一方面军总前委的重要会议,参与对红军行动方向的讨论和决策,既在会上旗帜鲜明地支持毛泽东确立＂诱敌深入、运动歼敌＂的正确决策,又在实践中以实际行动坚决执行总前委的战略方针,同主张＂一、三军团分离＂的错误倾向和分裂红军的阴谋活动进行坚决斗争,维护了红军的团结,为取得第一次反＂围剿＂胜利作出了突出贡献。     

基于竞选广告的民进党特性及沿革分析（1996-2012）

在台湾政治格局中，民进党扮演了一个重要的角色。在近30年的发展中，该党凸显了一些特点，而这些特点随着社会和两岸局势的发展又有所改变。本研究以1996年至2012年五届台湾地区领导人选举中332则民进党的报纸竞选广告为研究对象，通过内容分析勾勒了一幅民进党竞选策略的画面。在此基础上，作者赴台与13名在不同领域与台湾政界有关联的人士进行深度访谈，以解释内容、分析结论，探析民进党的特征和变化，以及隐藏于变化背后的原因。本文结论在一定程度上印证了前人研究，同时对该党未来的变化也提出可能性展望。     

论群众参与反腐败斗争的作用及其强化措施

群众监督是反腐败斗争的一条有效途径,它具有＂四个不断＂的作用。针对目前群众参与反腐败斗争存在的＂四个不＂的主要问题,应采取＂四个进一步＂的应对策略,以期不断增强反腐败斗争的效果。     

The Material Culture of US Elections

Abstract

The abiding motif of election campaigns in the USA is not the spot ad, nor the candidate debate, nor even the campaign Web site, but instead remains the campaign button. It should be consigned to history by fast paced development of campaigns into modern technologies, but there are still hundreds of designs produced quadrennially for national campaigns, and many more for races at all levels. Even if the life of the campaign button is coming to a close, it has been a long run, from the brass buttons of 1789, to the tiny framed daguerreotypes of the mid-19th century, through the celluloid buttons of the 1890s, to the chip implanted versions of today.

But the campaign button is just the most ubiquitous example of the material culture of the US election. It has been modified by changes in artisan skills, industrial production, bulk availability, the changes in inexpensive materials and manufactures, and cost effectiveness and profitability. Over the same period of time many other artefacts have been used by entrepreneurs and campaigns to bring the candidates and their public together at the same time as making a profit-either financial or political. This article discusses the role of entrepreneurship, changing industrial technology, and the emergence of newly cost-effective materials, as contexts for the creation of the wealth of campaign ephemera that has adapted to change and maintained its place in the campaign for over 200 years.     

2010年台湾“五都”选举民进党竞选策略——以政治营销学的基本模式解析

2010年＂五都＂选举民进党打了一场＂非典型＂选战。在这场选战中,民进党扬弃了过去的＂激情牌＂和＂悲情牌＂,在＂北二都＂,刻意淡化民进党的政党属性,以＂幸福牌＂和＂治理牌＂为选战主轴,凸显苏贞昌、蔡英文的理性务实精神和贴近市民的柔性、感性诉求。许多新的观念和新潮事物被引入选举中,特别是网络和＂客厅会＂、＂小英行动加油站＂等小型动员方式的运用,是试图创造有别于传统基层组织和桩脚的新型动员方式。尽管选举结果民进党没能拿下＂北二都＂,但在基本盘蓝大于绿的＂北二都＂,选情却一直呈胶着状态。特别是第一次参选的蔡英文,在新北市一举拿下了百万票,显示民进党及其候选人的竞选策略在一定程度上是成功的。本文以布鲁斯.埃.纽曼的政治营销模式的核心概念（选民细分、候选人定位、战略制定与实施）来解析民进党＂北二都＂竞选策略。     

延安时期中共在运动中开展思想政治教育述论

在运动中开展思想政治教育工作是延安时期党的思想政治工作的特色之一。党根据不同时期的任务要求,确立不同的思想政治教育目的,在运动中开展了卓有成效的思想政治教育实践,取得了非常明显的教育效果,有力地促进了边区政治、经济、军事、文化等各项事业的发展,为新民主主义革命的伟大胜利奠定了坚实的思想理论基础。