Political Marketing Research in the 2000 U.S. Election

Abstract

It is not news that polls and other forms of marketing research are regularly employed to craft political strategy. What is new is that the 2000 U.S. election represented a turning point where political marketing research seems to take center stage. The print and broadcast media employed polls and other forms of research at levels far beyond anything ever seen before. At times, it appeared as if almost as much attention was being given to polls as was being given to the political candidates and the issues. This was clearly a new and important posturing of the role of political marketing research. With this as a backdrop, the current article compares polls and other forms of political research-focusing on what went wrong and what was right in terms of the use of polls, focus groups and Internet research during the 2000 U.S. election. The article ends with the presentation of some exploratory research that examines insights about respondents' opinions regarding the impact of political polls.     

Focus Group Follies?

Abstract

Media coverage of the contemporary British Labour party routinely suggests party leaders, notably Tony Blair, have been overly reliant on using focus group as a means of obtaining voter feedback. The paper explores this popular understanding by considering how and when qualitative forms of opinion research began to play a significant role in developing campaign strategy. Following their incorporation into party planning during the mid-1980s, focus groups provided an increasingly influential (and at the time more discreet) source of data and support for the leadership's Policy Review later that decade. Following the 1992 election defeat selective findings from the party's qualitative research programme became integral to the public relations' initiatives of Labour's self-styled “modernisers,” particularly in their largely successful attempt to delegitimise and then marginalise the role of the party's once formidable affiliated union supporters in internal affairs. Crucially this contributed to a climate that enabled the key moderniser Tony Blair to emerge and win the leadership.     

Political Marketing and Professionalized Campaigning

Abstract

During the last decade a number of scholars have argued that political campaigning has become professionalized, and that political marketing has become the new dominant campaign paradigm. However, the conceptual relationship between political marketing and the professionalization of political campaigning is unclear. Furthermore, the distinction between political marketing, market orientation, and marketing techniques is often blurred. At the same time, most of the literature is dominated by either an American or British perspective. This makes it unclear as to whether these concepts should be viewed as general concepts, or as concepts relevant primarily for countries that share some specific set of political institutions.

In this backdrop, the purpose of this article is to analyze (1) the conceptual relationship between political marketing, market orientation, marketing techniques, and professionalization of political campaigning, and (2) whether contemporary concepts of political marketing and the professionalization of political campaigning are equally applicable to all modern democracies regardless of, for example, political system and other country-specific factors. It also outlines a theory of strategic party goals for multiple arenas.     

Marketing the Political Message

Abstract

The potential for Americanisation of UK political campaigning is discussed with a particular focus on message development and dissemination. The paper recognises that there is difference between policy and message development, arguing that it is through the latter that British parties have most to learn from their transatlantic counterparts. Contextual differences in operation mitigate wholesale migration of American know-how, restricting technology transfer to fund-raising techniques and the incorporation of opposition and market research techniques into the development and dissemination of the message. Parties should focus their research on how to make their messages more easily understood and where to disseminate them, but they should use a process that maintains the integrity of their content (i.e., the underlying policy).     

异地培训：创新欠发达地区干部教育的有效方式

异地培训是欠发达地区干部教育的有效方式,是提高干部综合素质和能力的重要途径。要树立发展的培训理念,明确培训目标;确定鲜明的培训主题,选准培训地点;选择实用的培训内容,科学设计方案;采取灵活的培训方式,精心组织活动;形成长效的培训机制,注重总结经验,努力提升异地培训效果。     

河北省农村社区矫正工作的发展策略

社区环境是开展社区矫正工作的基础。与城市社区相比,我国农村社区在经济发展水平、基础设施建设、人力资源储备等方面处于劣势,探索适合农村文化和现实的矫正制度是矫正工作者应当关注的重要问题之一。社区矫正工作实施以来,河北省在完善法律制度、建立工作机构和推进社区信息化建设等方面有所创新,但农村社区仍存在村民参与少、有关部门配合不顺畅,矫正措施层次低、工作队伍专业化不强等问题。社区矫正机构应当在现行法律框架内,结合农村实际,进一步转变观念、规范职能、提高矫正措施水平以及重视工作队伍建设,以推动农村社区矫正工作健康发展。     

新形势下青少年校外活动场所发展策略研究——以浙江省为例

伴随着教育改革的不断深入,国家基本公共服务规则的出台,青少年校外活动场所的发展迎来了新的发展机遇。文章立足于浙江省的实际情况,分析以青少年宫为代表的浙江省青少年校外活动场所发展现状,探讨新形势下浙江省青少年校外活动场所的发展策略。     

The Common Security and Defence Policy as an act of American hegemony

Abstract

The financial crisis endangers the security of NATO's members and partners. As such, NATO has a formal obligation to mobilize its resources to aid members in overcoming current economic challenges. NATO can play a valuable role on three levels. First, NATO can aid members in rationalizing their military procurement and manpower systems, thus reducing the fiscal burden of maintaining adequate defenses. Second, NATO can press the ECB and the EU to modify arrangements governing the Euro so as to minimize the risk that EMU will collapse. Finally, NATO has a “soft power” role in vigorously defending the liberal economic order and democratic political institutions of the Western Alliance from the ideological attacks that inevitably follow financial crises.     

探究民营银行发展之路

民营银行之争由来已久。中国的银行业不缺数量,缺的是结构,缺草根金融。该文回顾了民营银行艰难的探索历程,指出应科学界定民营银行经营范围和服务对象,消除制度障碍和现实阻碍,秉承先试点,后推广,循序渐进的发展思路,不断完善顶层设计,提升自身实力,让民营银行逐渐成长为金融体系中一支审要的力量。     

Ritual,strategy, and deep culture in the Chechen national movement

This paper probes the dichotomy between strategic performance of cultural text and a strong approach to culture that sees fundamental texts as encompassing and determining social action. The central question posed is whether the paradigmatic emphasis on strategy in cultural analysis of protest and social movements misses the compelling influences that cultural texts may exert under certain conditions. Regarding protest movements and political contention, I am especially interested in the ‘deep textual grammar’ of the conflict, which can strongly constrain and guide social action. By identifying and analysing the deep cultural text of the Chechen nationalist movement for the period 1989–1999, this study shows that, in addition to strategic decisions, movement trajectories are sometimes strongly – almost ritualistically – culturally determined. As a first step towards reconceptualising the role of culture in social movements and to spur further investigation, this paper offers several propositions derived from the Chechen case about the relationship of deep culture and mobilisation.