Page 23 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

to obstruct existing power-holders, and have them replaced by
alternatives.

Political parties

This category of political actor includes, most obviously, the
established political parties: aggregates of more or less like-minded
individuals, who come together within an agreed organisational
and ideological structure to pursue common goals. These goals
will reflect the party’s underlying value system, or ideology, such
as the British Conservative Party’s adherence to ‘individual
freedom’ and the supremacy of the market; or their Labour
opponents’ preference for ‘capitalism with a human face’ and the
principles of social justice and equality. In the United States the
Democrats have historically been associated with relative
liberalism in social policy, and an interventionist approach to the
economy, while the Republicans aspire to reduce state involvement
in all aspects of socio-economic life.
Despite the ideological differences which may exist between
political parties in modern democracies they share a commitment
to constitutional means of advancing their objectives, attempting
to convince a population as a whole of their correctness, and
putting their policies to the test of periodic elections. Once
mandated (or rejected, as the case may be) they agree to abide by
the constitutional rules of the political system in which they
operate, respecting the limitations it puts on their power to
implement or oppose policy, until such time as another electoral
opportunity comes along.
For parties, clearly, the smooth functioning of the process
described above is dependent primarily on their ability to
communicate with those who will vote for and legitimise them.
When, until relatively recently, voting rights in capitalist countries
were restricted to small elites of propertied, educated men, it was
enough for parties to use various forms of interpersonal
communication, such as public meetings and rallies, aided by
newspaper coverage, to reach their constituencies. But in an age of
universal suffrage and a mass electorate parties must use mass
media. Chapters 6 and 7 examine the many communication
strategies and tactics which have been developed by political parties
in recognition of this fact. These include techniques which originated
in the world of corporate and business affairs, such as marketing—
the science of ‘influencing mass behaviour in competitive situations’

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