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administer focus groups and voter segmentation analyses. They are paid by the party
organisation and they usually have both an academic background and some
experience of political work within the party.

The overall trend of more people working within the party communication business is
probably more widespread than the above table shows. Consideration must also be
given to the fact that the ruling Social Democratic Party has access to huge
communication resources outside the party organisation. There are about 25 Social
Democratic ministers in the government, each with their own staff, including press
secretaries and assistants. These employees are not officially integrated within party
activities but play an important role, not least at election times, preparing the leading
politicians with arguments and media advice. The press departments within the
government have developed substantially over recent years, particularly within the
Prime Minister’s Office.

To conclude, there are more party people than ever engaged in modern
communication practices. At the same time, the majority of party officials still work
within traditional areas such as recruiting and training party members and articulating
and consolidating political interests of the party supporters. The fact that both party
identification and party membership have been going down has not yet affected
internal party work. Despite a more volatile electorate, it appears that it is easier for
officials to depend on organisational competence rather than on political marketing
skills. The main explanation for this may be because of the system of public financing,
based on voting figures, whose aim is to maintain the existing party structure. All
parties in the parliament receive the majority of their income from the fiscal budget,
while member fees or private money offer only a marginal contribution (Nord,2004).
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
Marketing tools have been used regularly in Swedish party politics during recent
decades (Petersson & Holmberg, 1998). The breakthrough was during the 1980s and
1990s and there has been no real increase in the number of polls since. All political
parties use opinion polls every year, even if they are more common in election years.
However, there are different levels of interest in opinion polls. While Social Democrats
and the Non-Socialist Opposition Parties each conduct a number of polls annually and
have at least one person employed to prepare and analyse the polls, the Left party and
the Greens only buy a few questions in an external survey (Table 3).

The steady level of party opinion polls may be surprising but can be explained by the
fact that many other polls exist in public life. Many leading media companies publish
monthly polls about party support or confidence in party leaders. There is empirical
evidence that polls have been used more and more frequently in political news
reporting (Strömbäck, 2004). As well as media polls, there are a great number of polls
conducted by interest organisations, lobbyists, private companies and public
authorities, all aimed at influencing public opinion and setting the political agenda.
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