Page 93 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Information Revolutions
revolutions.Thestandardclaimintheliteratureonthistopicconcernsthe
contribution of television to the changing nature of electoral campaigns.
The history of campaigning in the twentieth century is typically told in
terms of the evolution of candidate-centered politics: a “change in focus,”
as Martin Wattenberg writes, “from parties to candidates.” 112 Television
isacentral figure in this story, although not the only important actor. The
familiar account is roughly as follows. Along with the destruction of pa-
tronage systems and structural changes such as adoption of the primary
system and the Australian ballot, the technologies of television as well as
polling led to the demise of the party-based campaign and the rise of the
candidate-centered campaign in its place. At the same time that changes
in political process were weakening the grip of parties on voters’ behavior
and necessitating competition between candidates of the same party, the
new technologies provided candidates with capabilities for communicat-
ing and mobilizing that substituted for some of the traditional services
of parties. This process of party decline in electoral politics began in the
Progressive Era, at the same time as the decline in the party’s role in
policy communication, and extended well past the midcentury mark. By
the 1950s, at least, changes had evolved far enough that congressional
candidates no longer needed party organizations to win them office. 113
The situation was similar for presidential campaigns not long thereafter.
This story of the shift from parties to candidates is very much a story of
organizational change, of a decline in the influence of one form of orga-
nization and ascendance in place of another. As political intermediaries,
interest groups had exploited and benefited from the second informa-
tion revolution, just as parties did from the first. As broadcasting and
associated technologies developed, the candidate campaign organiza-
tion emerged as a newly important organizational form better adapted
to the new communication and information environment than the old
party form. The candidate campaign organization belonged to a new
class that would grow more important: the ad hoc, event-centered or-
ganization, created for the duration of one event or political episode
and very much unlike the more institutionalized party or interest group.
It was a temporary political team – not unlike the teams in a pick-up

112
Martin P. Wattenberg, The Rise of Candidate-Centered Politics: Presidential Elections
in the 1980s (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 1.
113
Paul S. Herrnson, “Hired Guns and House Races: The Impact of Campaign Profes-
sionals on Fundraising, Strategy, Communications, and Electoral Success,” paper for
the Role of Political Consultants in Elections Conference, School of Public Affairs,
American University, June 19, 1998, Washington, D.C.

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