Beyond winning : party goals and campaign strategy in Australian elections

Abstract

Discussions of election campaigning and strategy often focus on winning. Researchers and practitioners alike aim to tease out the campaign tools and methods that help parties pull in votes, while positing a desire to win as the rationale behind almost every campaign decision. But is winning the only goal that parties hold when embarking on an election campaign? Drawing on qualitative interviews with more than 50 representatives from 13 Australian parties, this research finds that parties actually articulate a broader range of goals, including taking (or retaining) majority government, preserving a viable parliamentary presence, maximising their influence over the political process and advocating for specific policy issues. These objectives are discussed in the context of existing research on party goals, as we seek to incorporate the voices and views of real campaign practitioners into an academic space where they have often been more noticeable by their absence. Building from the understanding that parties hold different goals, this research then explores the relationship between these goals and the strategies adopted by the parties contesting five case study state elections between 2010 and 2013. Informed by content analysis of campaign materials and observation of party activities, we find that parties with different goals make different strategic choices in a range of key areas, including their choice of target audiences, their selection of key messages and themes, and their preferredcommunication tools and channels. Importantly however, we find that a party's goals are not the only factor driving decisions about campaign strategies, withinstitutional, organisational and environmental features also playing an influential role. In exploring the interaction between party goals and campaign strategies in Australian elections, this research contributes a different perspective on party behaviour to the international discussion about electioneering. It also helps to broaden our understanding of the Australian political landscape both by analysing the campaigns of major and minor parties from across the political spectrum, and by including the direct perspectives of local campaigners. As someone who has been fortunate enough to work in and around politics for several years, it was surprising to discover that the voices of those who practice this on a daily basis have not often been included in academic studies. This project therefore represents an attempt to bring those voices into the conversation, while also demonstrating to other researchers that there is value and benefit in doing so. Show more