Electoral Campaigning in Comparative Perspective

The seminar is dedicated to empirical studies of electoral campaigns. During the course participants will learn about the main approaches to studying campaigns and their implications for empirical research.

The objectives of the seminar are to explore how political context and parties’ issue ownership determine the course of electoral campaigns as well as how campaigning strategies influence the electoral results.

The course touches upon selected topics connected with electoral campaigning: strategies designed to attract voters, factors influencing how campaigns are conducted, and consequences of parties’ and candidates’ strategies.

The two main approaches to explaining electoral campaigns will be linked to the concepts of responsiveness and issue ownership.

After familiarizing with those approaches we will proceed to analyzing factors influencing how campaigns are conducted: electoral systems, properties of political actors and the social and economic context.

During the seminar we will discuss the determinants and consequences of various campaigning strategies, including negative campaigning, selective issue emphasis as well as campaigning on the Internet and via social media.

When reading particular publications presenting results of empirical studies we will devote special attention to the construction of hypotheses, their operationalization, research design, as well as the empirical results.

Abney, Ronni, James Adams, Michael Clark, Malcolm Easton, Lawrence Ezrow, Spyros Kosmidis, Anja Neundorf. 2011. When does valence matter? Heightened valence effects for governing parties during election campaigns. Party Politics 19 (1): 61-82.

Adams, James F., Ethan Scheiner, and Jed Kawasumi. 2016. Running on character? Running on policy? An analysis of Japanese candidates' campaign platforms. Electoral Studies 44: 275-283.

Banda, Kevin K. 2013. The Dynamics of Campaign Issue Agendas. State Politics & Policy Quarterly 13(4): 446–470.

Butler, Daniel M., Eleanor N. Powell. 2014. Understanding the Party Brand Experimental Evidence on the Role of Valence. The Journal of Politics 76 (2): 492–505.

Chytilek, Roman. 2016. Can (Inter-party) Politics Disappear. Sociální studia / Social Studies 1/2016: 23–43.

Curini, Luigi. 2015. The Conditional Ideological Inducement to Campaign on Character Valence Issues in Multiparty Systems: The Case of Corruption. Comparative Political Studies 48 (2): 168–192.

Garramone, Gina M. 1984. Voter Response to Negative Political Ads. Journalism Quarterly 61 (2): 250–259.

Greene, Zachary. 2016. Competing on the issues: How experience in government and economic conditions influence the scope of parties policy messages. „Party Politics” 22 (6): 809-822.

Hansen, Kasper M., Rasmus Tue Pedersen. 2008. Negative Campaigning in a Multiparty System. Scandinavian Political Studies 31 (4): 408-427.

Hassell, Hans J. G., Kelly R. Oeltjenbruns. 2016. When to Attack: The Trajectory of Congressional Campaign Negativity. American Politics Research 44 (2): 222–246.

Hayes, D. (2005). Candidate qualities through a partisan lens: A theory of trait ownership. American Journal of Political Science, 49(4), 908-923.

van Heck, Sjoerd. 2016. Appealing broadly or narrowing down? The impact of government experience and party organization on the scope of parties’ issue agendas. „Party Politics” DOI: 10.1177/1354068816657374.

Petrocik, John R., William L. Benoit, and Glenn J. Hansen. 2003. Issue ownership and presidential campaigning, 1952–2000. Political Science Quarterly 118(4): 599–626.

Rafałowski, W. (2023). Campaigning on the Ability to Govern: A Study of Strategic References to Competence Made by Political Parties in Europe. Government and Opposition, 58(2), 268-290.

Spoon, Jae-Jae, Heike Klüver. 2014. Do parties respond? How electoral context influences party responsiveness. „Electoral Studies” 35: 48-60

Tavits, Margit, Joshua. D. Potter. 2015. The Effect of Inequality and Social Identity on Party Strategies. „American Journal of Political Science” 59 (3): 744–758.

Wagner, M., & Meyer, T. M. (2015). Negative issue ownership. West European Politics, 38(4), 797-816.

Walter, Annemarie S. 2014. Negative Campaigning in Western Europe: Similar or Different? Political Studies 62 (S1): 42–60.

K_W01 Knows and understands basic concepts of various sub-domains of sociology (e.g. sociology of family, health, work, religion, economy, education, etc)

K_W03 Is aware of ongoing theoretical and methodological disputes conducted in modern sociology; is reflective and critical of various positions

K_W05 Has in-depth knowledge about regional, domestic and international institutions and the problem of European integration

K_W16 Has in-depth knowledge about major international and domestic sociological research pertaining to selected areas of social reality or sub-domains of sociology

K_W27 Has in-depth knowledge of the 19th, 20th and 21st ideas and social processes which have shaped the face of the modern world

K_U04 Can critically select information and materials for academic work, using various sources in Polish and a foreign language as well as modern technologies

K_U16 Knows how to interpret the role of culture in the life of the individual and society

K_U17 Can relate an academic text to the problems of social life and its empirical studies

K_U18 Can identify the kinds of research in which the scientific texts read can be applicable

K_U19 Can prepare a presentation of a selected problem or study in Polish and in a foreign language

K_K01 Can initiate, plan, organize and manage work of a task team

K_K02 Can propose a solution to a problem that requires an interdisciplinary research approach

K_K05 Can gather, find, synthesize and critically assess information about social sciences

K_K07 Can justify the choice of sources

K_K10 Independently sets directions of personal development and further learning

K_K14 Takes responsibility for planned and performed tasks

The final grading will be based on the final written assignment (an essay on an pre-approved topic associated with the general subject of the course), the evaluation of in-class presentation as well as individual participation in the discussion during seminars.

The final essay will be graded based on the following criteria:

the overall understanding of the approaches, theories and facts mentioned in the essay

the expression and justification of one’s opinion on the existing research and the matter examined in the essay

referring to literature related to the chosen topic outside of the list of mandatory course readings

formal correctness of the essay, i.e. structure, references, etc.

The in-class presentation will be evaluated based on:

correctness and accuracy of presentation of the assigned book chapters or research articles

clarity of the presentation

critical assessment of the presented issue