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political communication field as in the US; or that there is a growth of a political
consultancy employment sector in the same way as there has been in the US.

Despite differences, there are also similarities across European countries. Some of these,
such as the growth in the level of mistrust of politicians and the general querying of the
efficacy of governments to resolve contemporary problems probably (see Mazzoleni &
Schulz 1999) extend to the US also, but many have a more European ‘feel’ to them.
These include:

The decline of the mass party
As chapter 2 analyses, and most chapters note, there has been a process that political
parties in Europe have witnessed a decline in their membership (see also Mair & Biezen
2001) and a changed relationship between voter and public.The most often referred-to
trend is one of de-alignment, whereby voters are no longer making political decisions
trend is one of dealignment, whereby voters are no longer making political decisions
on the basis of traditional allegiances (e.g. class, religion) and are more prepared to
switch votes, and hence are more open to persuasion. This has major implications for
the political process. In Italy, the political system underwent dramatic changes
following the scandals and the judiciary inquiries that have caused the death of most of
the traditional parties and the arrest of many important political leaders. The political
subculture, in which Italy was divided between the social-communists and the
Catholics, has progressively lost its importance and has almost disappeared. In Sweden,
traditional political stability has to a certain extent been challenged by a more volatile
public opinion.In the Netherlands,ideology and religion are less of a dominant factor in
voter choices and party membership has fallen to one of the lowest in Europe.
Moreover, as Kees Brants notes in his chapter, the number of floating voters has grown
at every election and the number who have been ‘turned-off’ politics has also
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
increased. Just as in Italy, the traditional pillars of Dutch society (the catholic, the
protestant and the socialist ones) have almost disappeared. In Germany, where three
parties dominated the political process for decades, the establishment of new parties,
and of the Greens in particular, has changed the party landscape and brought about
new competition. The high number of undecided voters prior to election day in
Germany is probably a good indicator of the dissolution of formerly strong party ties. In
Britain, first the Labour Party and more recently the Conservatives have restructured
themselves in order to attract the electorate, while in Greece the leading political
parties have faced considerable difficulties in getting their agendas placed before the
public, since they are less able to differentiate themselves and Greek citizens have
become less supportive of the political parties. In Hungary, although the political
system has changed completely over the last dozen or so years, the new political
parties are characterised by their lack of embeddedness in society, their lack of formal
party structure and small party memberships.

Across Europe, then, political parties must worry about the way in which they can
communicate with the public, how they can get their messages across, how they may
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