Suchergebnisse

Election campaigns are not only party campaigns, but depend to a significant degree on the efforts and activities of individual candidates. While some country-specific analyses of candidate campaigning have been done, large-N comparative studies are missing. The 2009 European Election Candidate Study, conducted in all 27 EU countries, does allow for such a comparative analysis. On the basis of this data, the article takes a closer look at three core components of individual campaigns and their respective determinants: duration, intensity, and the use of different campaign tools. Our findings show that only a combination of factors on the individual, party, and country level is able to explain significant amounts of the observed variance in each of the core components. Multi-level approach for explaining variation in individual campaigns performs well. Individual characteristics of candidates matter with respect to campaigning. Probability to get elected and being an incumbent MEP are strong predictors. Context (party- and country level) has to be taken into account as well. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]

At the end of May 2005, it seemed the (early) Bundestag election scheduled for September of that year would lead to a complete change of power in Germany. The Red-Green government's reforms came late & had been ineffective in the short run, & several setbacks during the first months of 2005 caused Chancellor Gerhard Schroder to call an early election. Yet, elections are won or lost on election day, & not in opinion polls. Thanks to an intensive campaign, the SPD & especially Schroder were able to mobilise & to activate their social & political support base better than expected, but they lost parts of their left wing to the Linkspartei formed by PDS & the SPD-breakaway WASG. The CDU/CSU & Angela Merkel ran a mediocre campaign, probably because some Christian Democrats thought the election would be won anyway. In addition, the Christian Democrats made the mistake of elevating taxation to the status of a major campaign issue by nominating Paul Kirchhof, a highly polarising law professor for the post of finance minister. This unwise move enabled the SPD to campaign negatively on the person & the CDU/CSU tax proposals that were anything but clear. In the end the SPD lost, but not as badly as previously expected. More surprisingly, the CDU/CSU lost votes as well. The winners were the small parties, especially the FDP & the Linkspartei. The losers, the major catch-all parties, were more or less forced to form a Grand Coalition. On the one hand, this coalition will make it more difficult for both CDU/CSU & SPD to regenerate & to sharpen their political profiles. On the other hand, the agenda powers enjoyed by the governing parties should not be underestimated in their effect. Therefore, predicting the end of the major catch-all parties would be pre-mature at this point. Tables, Figures. Adapted from the source document.

The potential accession of Turkey to the European Union (EU) is a controversial issue. This article considers how national political parties in the EU view Turkish membership, with a focus on the role of religion in party politics, in particular the positions of Christian Democratic (CD) parties. Whereas this party family is traditionally considered to be outspokenly pro-European, it is argued that Turkish accession poses a challenge to Europhile CD parties. On the basis of the party manifesto coding from the 2009 European Election Study project, our results confirm a significantly more hesitant position of CD parties vis-a-vis Turkey accession compared to other parties. The study suggests that CD parties' positions, although overall supportive of the EU, may turn into opposition when it comes to specific policies touching on religious questions. Adapted from the source document.

Electoral campaigns are conducted by parties & candidates to convince the people to turn out to vote & to vote for them instead of voting for a competitor. In parliamentary democracies, & especially in those that apply electoral systems of proportional representation with closed party lists, parties & their top candidates for prime minister or for chancellor are considered to be the main actors in campaigns. Consequently, electoral campaigns are primarily party campaigns which are neither won nor lost by any 'average' candidate. Parties structure the electoral competition by collectively emphasising certain issues & by presenting a rather cohesive ideological perspective in a campaign. Further, candidates & elected MPs are first & foremost representatives of their parties with very limited personal room for political manoeuvre. While this assessment is not challenged in principle, we argue that it cuts too short. In addition to parties, candidates play important roles in electoral campaigns, & due to the modernisation of parties & campaigns, we expect a substantial degree of personalised campaigning which is likely to increase in the future. Given the particular mixed-member electoral system used to elect the German Bundestag, we are able to differentiate the campaign of pure constituency candidates, pure list candidates & the most frequent hybrids who ran for office both in a constituency & on a party list in 2005. Tables. Adapted from the source document.