Strategi og virkelighed - politiskkommunikation.dk

ABSTRACT
Strategy and Reality - An Analysis of the Political Communication and Campaign Strategies
of the Social Democratic Party and the Social Liberal Party During the Euro-Referendum
September 2000 and the General Elections November 2001
Thesis submitted for the MA in Political Science, University of Copenhagen, February 2002
By: Morten Rasmussen
Supervisor: Ove K. Pedersen
Political communication and professional campaigning strategies have recently become a
permanent part in the work of political parties, institutions, and organisations in Denmark. Yet
the effects and consequences of this development on the relationship between the political-,
media-, and electoral spheres remain an uncharted field in Danish policy research. This thesis
contributes to the mapping and understanding of the use of political communication and
campaigning strategies in a Danish context.
The analysis takes a point of departure in the campaigns of the Social Democratic
Party and the Social Liberal Party during the 2000 euro-referendum and the 2001 general
elections. Empirical data for the research is gathered firstly through six qualitative interviews
conducted with main actors in the parties and among the media, and secondly from campaign
plans, speeches, and published articles. The analysis is performed through two theoretical
approaches. An institutional structure oriented approach is used to describe the institutional
framework and societal structures within which the actors function. And a game theoretical
actor oriented approach is used to describe the concrete campaigning situations under which
the actors assume rational behaviour and act out of self-interest and the knowledge of the
priorities of competing actors.
Based on the overall hypothesis that there are fundamental differences between
referendum and general election campaigning, the thesis investigates the structural and actor
based explanations for limitations in campaign efficiency. The core question is to determine
which factors promote or limit the implementation of predetermined campaign strategies in
the actual campaign situation.
The thesis concludes that in spite of the structural differences determining the
referendum and the election institutions the overall barriers to effective campaigning are the
same. In both cases claims about professionalism and effectiveness are statements of
aspirations rather than descriptions of reality.
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