WEEK 1
Lecture 1 – The public and its opinion
* What is an opinion?
* Why opinions matter so much in political science and political marketing?
What are opinions?
* Opinions are specific: moment-specific, issue-specific, person-specific
* Opinion flows, they change
* Opinions are the key element in contemporary “model” of political behaviour (i.e.,
elections, voting)
* Assumption: Opinions are so central that if I know something about your opinion, I
may also be able to predict your future behaviour
Measuring opinions allows to predict (voting) behaviors
* Opinions are that part of our mind that is more likely to be influenced by political
information
* Historically, the focus on opinions is relatively recent – before opinions, the focus
wasn’t on what people think of something but rather on individual predispositions
(how people are deep down)
* There are 3 subsequent models of (political) behaviour:
1. Rational models
2. Socio0logical models
3. Socio-psychological model
These models try to link who individuals are to understand what they do
Rational (economic) models
The central element of this model is individual preferences. The idea is that people act like
customers. That is, our behaviour can be simply explained as the maximization of our
preferences (Homo oeconomicus) even though it’s full information, but it’s a little
simplified phycology
Sociological model (or Colombia model)
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,For the first time this model expanded to include the influencing effect of political
information. This model tried to prove that political propaganda works à- that is, that people
can be influenced
Proved the historical importance of political persuasion
Proving that individuals do not always act rationally, but sometimes they are persuaded
to behave differently
Studies tried to prove that propaganda worked – however, many studies didn’t do this. They
proved that behaviors are quite stable hence reaffirming the importance of preferences.
Key factor: individual values:
* Social class (socio-economic level)
* Religious affiliation (and religiosity)
* Residence (urban and rural)
A. This is why it’s called sociological model (from sociology): that is, the environment
in where you live shapes you and your values
So if preferences (values) are stable in time, how do we explain fluctuation in voting choices
(aggregated, individual)? This is why our mind is made up of 2 components. Thjs is why
there is the need for a more encompassing model that takes into account both components:
1. Preferences: the “stable” component which explains the long term effects
2. Opinions: the “fluctuating” component which explains shot term effects
There is a third point that is, the effects of a changing context.
Socio-psychological model (Michigan model)
This model ads a psychological perspective to the model to understand fluctuation. This
model builds on the premises of the Colombia model importance of stable preferences to
shape behaviour
B. Basically, this models ads a psychological perspective to account for short-term
fluctuations not thinking where people stand politically, but rather what they are
thinking right now
This model says to focus on 3 “behavioural dispositions”:
1. Values – deep in your mind, they determine who you are (stable)
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, 2. Attitudes – the way you see and behave regarding specific issues (stable-ish)
3. Opinions – immediate judgement you have towards object x (fluctuating)
Values
* Stable forces that anchor and guide your vision of the world and participate to who
you are as individuals
* This is who you are deep down
* E.g., religiosity, traditionalism, altruism
Attitudes
* Preferences about important aspects of your life
* Deep affect towards X, like/dislike something, beliefs
* These stands from your values but are a little more likely to change and variate
* E.g., party identification, movies/music preferences
Opinions
* Ideas and judgements about a specific object
* Opinions stem from attitudes
* They are unstable and very specific of a specific time
* They fluctuate and change
* E.g., they can also be conflicting – you can like and dislike a political candidate
WEEK 2 – Political Marketing
The marriage of politics and marketing
Lees-Marshment, J. (2001). The marriage of politics and marketing. Political Studies, 49(4), 692-713.
Political marketing shall be understood as the marriage between politics and marketing,
where:
* It borrows the core marketing of product, sales, market-orientations and techniques
such as market intelligence
* And applies these to political science to produce integrated theoretical framework
* Political marketing is about political organizations adapting business-marketing
concepts and techniques to help them achieve their goals
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, When applying marketing to major British political parties, traditio0nal political science
literature helps us understand their
A. Nature – The major political parties seek to compete in democratic elections in order
to hold public office – and to win general elections so to hold long-term perspective
B. Market
C. Product – The party’s product is its behavior that encompasses many characteristics,
is ongoing and offered at all times (not just elections), at all levels of the party
D. Approach to behavior – Political science also offers a number of models to help
explain and analyse the approach taken to how they determine their behaviour
Marketing literature discusses how businesses try to gain more custom, design their product
and promote it. It offers analytical framework and terminology that can appear quite alien tot
the political science scholar and its concepts need careful adaptation. Marketing offers
several orientations to explain business behavior
1. Product-oriented business concentrates on producing the best product it can, as
efficiently and cheaply as possible
2. Sales-oriented business has the same attitude towards designing its product but puts
much more effort into selling the good. The focus is on employing sales-techniques
such as advertising and direct mail to persuade buyers that they want the good the
firm is offering
3. Market-orienated business will design its product to provide consumer satisfaction to
achieve its goals
Marketing also uses a process to depict activities, such as market intelligence, which business
engage in. These are presented as a “marketing mix” or “4Ps” – aka, product, pricing,
promotion and place.
The different curriculum of political marketing
Political parties can use political marketing to increase their chances of achieving their goals
of winning general elections. They alter aspects of their behaviours, including policy
membership, leadership and organizational structure to suit the nature and demands of their
market. The influence of marketing on a party’s whole behaviour can be as follows:
1. A product-oriented party
Argues for what it stands for and believes in
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