The Study of Campaign Consultants: A Subfield in Search of Theory

Thurber, James A.

doi:10.1017/s1049096500054160

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Most of the initiatives introduced by parties to respond to declining membership stem from the assumption that the problem is one of costs/benefits ratio and that the solution lies in lowering barriers to individual participation. Just as the global market in consultants has contributed to a dominant approach to public administration reforms (Saint-Martin, 2001), the circulation of political advisors is likely to have played a role in the homogenisation of party reforms; however, there is very little research on such evolutions, with the exception of campaigning techniques (Thurber, 1998;P. Webb and Kolodny 2006;Negrine, 2007).…”

Section: The Diagnosis and The Cure: A Crisis Of Traditional Form Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

New forms of political participation. Changing demands or changing opportunities to participate in political parties?

Faucher

2014

Comp Eur Polit

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In the past 30 years, party membership has dropped significantly across Europe, whereas other forms of political participation have developed. I first show how political parties have sought to be more attractive by lowering the cost of membership and creating new selective incentives (such as the right to vote in internal ballots), leading to a convergence of party rules across European parties. To understand the logic behind such reforms, one needs to take into account the broader political context and I focus on the United Kingdom to show how competition between and within parties provided the justification for changes that mostly aligned them with organisational myths. The third part argues that such changes in opportunities to participate in political parties contribute to explain why membership has continued to fall. This article draws on extensive qualitative research (including my own) conducted in and on political parties in the United Kingdom and France to provide a new account of membership recruitment crisis that contrasts with the traditional emphasis on supply/demand.

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Section: The Diagnosis and The Cure: A Crisis Of Traditional Form Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

New forms of political participation. Changing demands or changing opportunities to participate in political parties?

Faucher

2014

Comp Eur Polit

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“…Portanto, tecnologias da informação e comunicação podem tornar as assessorias parlamentares muito mais cruciais no processo de filtrar, selecionar e interpretar informação. LENART, 1997;NEGRINE et al, 2007;PANAGOPOULOS, 2006;THURBER, 1998), poucas pesquisas olharam para a equipe que coordena o processo comunicacional, elo entre parlamentar e cidadão. Gibson et al (2003), analisando eleições norte-americanas e britânicas, utilizam um survey, aliado à análise de conteúdo dos websites, para questionar a importância que os estrategistas de campanha davam à internet naquela ocasiãoà época, constatando a baixa relevância atribuída às ferramentas online.…”

Section: Gráfico 1 -Porcentagem De Uso Das Plataformas Pelos Deputadounclassified

Gabinetes Digitais: O Papel Da Comunicação Online Na Rotina Parlamentar

Carlomagno

Braga

Wisse

2019

Rev. Elet. Prog. Pós-Grad. Câmara dos Deputados

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Este artigo investiga a utilização de ferramentas digitais pelos gabinetes parlamentares na Câmara dos Deputados. Diferentemente do que a literatura da área tradicionalmente faz, nossa pesquisa analisa o ponto de vista dos operadores do sistema. Aplicamos um survey (amostral e representativo do universo) às assessorias parlamentares trabalhando com comunicação nos gabinetes dos deputados federais. A partir de uma série de questões sobre o impacto destas ferramentas, criamos dois índices de comunicação, externa e interna. Em seguida, agregamos os dois índices e propomos uma tipologia das comunicações dos gabinetes parlamentares. Cruzamos os dados com partidos políticos, a fim de salientar as distinções no tipo de comunicação adotada. Entre as contribuições desta pesquisa reside o destaque ao uso destas ferramentas não apenas no contato com os cidadãos, mas na rotina interna dos gabinetes. As evidências sugerem que estas tecnologias impactam não somente as relações externas ao gabinete (sua importância como comunicação), mas a própria rotina interna de trabalho.

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“…This dynamic is illustrated extensively in Kreiss' work on the adoption and diffusion of new media and data analytic approaches (2016,2012) in the Democratic and Republican parties, and in the case of the collaboration between private vendors and the Democratic party to maintain and provide access to voter databases described by Hersh (2015). Earlier work also made clear that contemporary consultants work with the parties during elections (Kolodny and Dulio 2003;Kolodny and Logan 1998;Thurber andNelson 2000, 2004) and are not that different from party operatives in their reports of their motivations (Dulio 2004) or approach to campaigning (Dulio and Nelson 2005).…”

Section: Understanding American National-level Campaignsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With some notable exceptions: James Thurber, David Dulio and their colleagues led a series of studies of political consultants and campaigns in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e.g Thurber 1998;Thurber and Nelson 2000;Dulio 2004;Dulio and Nelson 2005)Kreiss ( , 2012,Mahler (2011Mahler ( , 2006,Hersh (2015), Grossman (2009,Nielsen (2012) .…”

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confidence: 99%

Neither Mercenaries nor Masterminds: Campaign Staff and Consultants in American National Elections

Laurison¹

2019

Preprint

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Campaigns play a key role in shaping how Americans experience electoral politics, yet the way in which professional campaign operatives understand and approach their work has received relatively little scholarly attention. Most accounts of campaigns’ strategic decision-makers treat them as masterminds – individuals who devise tactics based on brilliant political insight or masterful data analysis. Others assume they are mercenaries, milking the electoral process for all the money they can regardless of their own ideological commitments or what might actually help candidates win elections. Neither of these approaches is sufficient to understand how political professionals understand their work; they ignore both the fundamental uncertainty of campaign effects and the particularities of the work-world of political operatives. Drawing on 79 interviews with 67 campaign staff and consultants with high-level experience in Presidential and Senate campaigns, I argue that they should be understood as participants in a field of cultural production, which functions much like other arenas where communicative materials are crafted. Gaining esteem and coveted positions within the field is most participants’ primarily motivation, and the quality of the messages, images, and strategies they produce is judged less by measurable effects on voters than by an internally-generated set of norms and ideas about best practices.

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The Study of Campaign Consultants: A Subfield in Search of Theory

Cited by 11 publications

References 7 publications

New forms of political participation. Changing demands or changing opportunities to participate in political parties?

New forms of political participation. Changing demands or changing opportunities to participate in political parties?

Gabinetes Digitais: O Papel Da Comunicação Online Na Rotina Parlamentar

Neither Mercenaries nor Masterminds: Campaign Staff and Consultants in American National Elections

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