Page 21 - The Professionalisation of Political Communication Chaning Media, Changing Europe Volume 3

Political Communication.qxd 5/1/07 15:05 Page 20
Political Communication.qxd 12/7/06 7:30 pm Page 18

18 | THE PROFESSIONALISM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

the campaign. Indeed, it is possible that there is a complex interaction whereby the
influences work both ways: where, in other words, form influences content and vice
versa.

Professionalisation in proportional/ majoritarian electoral vote
Do different electoral systems have an effect or impact on the nature of political
communication and the levels of professionalisation? One could argue, for example,
that in a proportional representation system, the centralisation of political
communication is usually more advanced than in a majoritarian system. This might be
because, in a proportional representation system, the most important consideration is
the number of votes cast for each party at the national level. In circumstances such as
this, the party undertakes all the communication functions and the individual
candidate thus matters much less than the party as a whole.

This was the situation in Italy up to 1994 when the majoritarian system was introduced.
Prior to this, for example, candidates from the Communist Party were not allowed to
campaign for themselves. Since 1994, and under the (mainly) majoritarian system (as
25% of Parliament seats are still gained through the proportional system), what counts
is the vote for the individual candidate. However, as parties are now relatively weak,
they are not able to lend their support to all the candidates, who now increasingly
come from outside the party structure.These candidates are therefore forced to employ
their own personal professionalised communication teams. This process has advanced
furthest in ‘simple-majority’ elections at governor and mayor levels, where the
candidates come from outside the party and so have very little party support for their
election activities. In such cases, the power of the party lies primarily in the selection of
candidates and the placing of candidates in ‘safe’ seats or districts, but then the party is
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
no longer able to provide candidates with their communication structure. It thus
campaigns at the national level for the main leader (e.g. Berlusconi, Prodi) and for the
general image of the party. It is at this level that the process of centralisation takes
place, but at the local level, each candidate has to campaign through his or her own
‘professionalised’ team. In the ‘German model’, with its combination of a proportional
system with a personalised element where the party vote is the decisive vote, the
professionalisation process has impacted on the parties and their top candidates, but
much less on the regional candidates (see Holtz-Bacha,2004).

However,even under majoritarian electoral systems,many seats are often considered to
be ‘safe’ seats – i.e. traditionally going for one or other of the major parties – and so
unlikely to swing (except in ‘landslide’ elections as in Britain in 1997 where large
numbers of seats did shift). Parties therefore have to make strategic decisions with
respect to campaigning for elections. They will increasingly target those seats that are
most likely to change political colour – because the majorities are slim – at the same
time as pursuing a national campaigning strategy. But in targeting particular seats, the
resources of a party are concentrated on electoral activities on behalf of the party and
20