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170 | THE PROFESSIONALISM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

the circle of voters of the left. He and his campaign team ran an American-style,
personalised, road show campaign. According to its result, the campaign was
successful:the Socialists won,and Peter Medgyessy became their first prime minister.

The disciplined cohesive communication of the Socialists, however, lasted only for the
period of the campaign. Following the elections the Socialists wanted to return to the
‘campaign-free’ ‘normal way of life’, emphasising the need to bring together the two
opposing halves of the society. But this was not possible because of the permanent
campaign activity of the opposition, started from the first day of the new governmental
period.

Moreover, the plurality of the Socialist party hampered coordinated and effective
political communication.Internal party discussion – extensively published by the media
– was seen as a sign of weakness and not a sign of democracy in action. Furthermore,
the overwhelming majority of the Socialist party leaders were unable to adapt to the
new requirements of modern mass democracy and mediated politics. They had long
believed that intra-party performance was much more important than public opinion.
It was clear, however, that a permanent and total campaign used by the opposition
would either consume the Socialist party or force it to make the kinds of structural or
organisational changes needed by mass democracy and mediated politics. The results
of the public opinion polls forecast a failure at the next elections in 2006 if there were
not to be considerable changes. In the summer of 2004 certain changes in the
leadership, organisational form and style of communication were started, but whether
these will be enough to win in 2006 remains to be seen.

1998–2002: A PUBLIC RELATIONS GOVERNMENT?
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
The political communication system created by the Young Democrats’ government
between 1998–2002 merits special attention because it can be seen as a perfect
example of a public relations government, or ‘mediatised populist democracy’
(Körösényi, 2002). This could be characterised by the following elements: PR and
political communication aims in the centre of politics; concentration of public policy; a
presentation to the public of an over-simplified politics with an emphasis on slogans
and symbols; constant and all-encompassing campaigning; and the emphasises of
prime minister’s personality as symbolically unifying the nation and ‘without any party
bias’. Finally, seeking to unite society as a union of ‘natural communities’ (that is
Hungarians and their families) and not as a society with ‘functional groups’ (Navracsics,
2000).

To realise their far-reaching aims, the governing parties limited the opposition’s ability
to appear before the public via the media by reducing parliamentary sessions from
once a week to once every three weeks. More dangerously, this procedural shift
reduced the opposition’s opportunities to debate and critique the government’s
proposals and actions. Furthermore, to reduce the effects of the opposition’s critiques,
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