Page 68 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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DavidL.Swanson

politically: ... that of [the] two parties which continue to monopolize
power at the parliamentary and governmental level and ... that of the
single issue groups and protest movements, whose membership has long
sinceoutstrippedtheactivegrassrootssupportthepartiescancallupon.”
Alderman’s point applies equally well to a number of countries, and es-
pecially to the United States where the political influence of powerful
lobbying groups of all kinds is widely discussed and fully appreciated by
citizens.
The changing political landscape has rendered the old discourse
of politics quaint rather than compelling and engendered a funda-
mental change in how political communication is practiced and re-
ceived by citizens. As Waisbord (1996, 220–1) observed about politics in
Argentina,

The aura of ideological faiths has disappeared and ancient idols
have fallen. Argentine political culture has been secularized. Prag-
matism has diluted the magic of discourses that impregnated party
life and political debates ... [with] sublime aspirations [for] na-
tional sovereignty, liberty, and social justice. ... In recent elections,
voters have demanded less celestial and more terrestrial goods: eco-
nomic stability ... better education, and safer cities. The vanishing
of the charm and romanticism of old rallying cries looms behind
the transformations in electioneering. Formerly strong identities
have become thinner, and ideological convictions that dominated
policymakers have receded in favor of pragmatic solutions. This
cultural transformation has undermined the bases upon which the
old campaigning order was grounded.

Argentina is an especially clear case of the clash between the old politics
offaithandredemptionandthenewpoliticsofopinionandpragmatism,
but the same sort of change has been noted generally across the older
democracies (see Mayobre 1996; Mazzoleni 1996; Dogan 1997; Giddens
1999; Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999). Everywhere, it seemed, political par-
ties found themselves no longer able to command so fully the loyalties
of their traditional partisans by repeating old political rituals and the
timeworn themes of their traditional political rhetoric. The crisis of po-
litical parties was the growing perception that they were not relevant
to contemporary voters’ interests and concerns. Thus, parties faced the
need to find new bases for appealing to voters in the increasingly volatile
electoral environment.

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