Digital campaigning as a policy of democracy promotion: Applying deliberative theories of democracy to political parties

Today’s election campaigns are heavily data-driven. Despite the numerous skeptical voices questioning the compatibility of specific campaigning practices with fundamental principles of liberal democracies, there has to date been little comprehensive work in this area from the perspective of normative democratic theory. Our article addresses this gap by drawing on recent research on the normative theory of political parties in the field of deliberative democratic theory. The deliberative theories of democracy proposed by Habermas and Rawls contain structural elements of a normative theory of the political party: the special status of political parties as mediators between background culture and the political forum, between the political system and the public sphere, and between the individual and the state, confers on them a central position as actors in in the public use of reason and deliberation.We argue in this article for a view of digital campaigning as a policy of democracy promotion and for the proposition that, alongside other actors, political parties have a special responsibility in this regard. We point to the implications for the evaluation and design of digital political microtargeting that arise from the application of deliberative principles to political parties and consider the need they reveal for the ongoing development of detailed, nuanced normative theories of democracy.

The inter-institutional impact of digital platform companies on democracy: A case study of the UK media’s digital campaigning coverage

Digital platforms, such as Google and Facebook, are under increased scrutiny as regards their impact on society. Having prompted concerns about their capacity to spread misinformation, contribute to filter bubbles and facilitate hate speech, much attention has been paid to the threat platforms pose to democracy. In contrast to existing interventions considering the threats posed by interactions between platforms and users, in this article, I examine platforms’ impact on the democratic work of other bodies. Considering the relationship between platforms and the media, I reveal how platforms affect journalists’ ability to advance their democratic goals. Using a case study of journalistic coverage of digital campaigning at the 2019 UK general election, I show how platforms have hindered journalistic efforts to inform citizens and provide a watchdog function. These findings are significant for our understanding of platforms’ democratic impact and suggest policy makers may wish to regulate platforms’ inter-institutional impact upon democracy.

How Might Digital Campaigning Affect the Problems of Political Finance?

This lecture deals with the intersection between three sets of challenges, each of which constitutes an existential threat to democracies across the world. The first is linked to money in politics, which poses the danger not only of ‘policy capture’ but also, in worse-case scenarios, of state capture by monied interests. The principal question addressed by this lecture is poised at the meeting place between these sets of challenges: How might digital campaigning affect the problems of political finance? Also integrated into the analysis is a third set of challenges: those which arise from the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture reflects on how the pandemic might shape the impact of digital campaigning on the problems of political finance. Follow the lecture for the conclusion and read also the paper for more details.

Investigating Visual Content Shared over Twitter during the 2019 EU Parliamentary Election Campaign

Political communication increasingly takes on visual forms. Yet, despite their ubiquity in everyday communication and digital campaigning, the use of these visuals remains critically understudied. In this article, we investigate the formats and modes of visual content deployed by Twitter users over a two-week period leading up to the 2019 EU Parliamentary elections and across two publics: those discussing the election at large and those discussing the more contentious issue of EU membership. Conducting a multilingual, cross-comparative content and thematic analysis of a sample of 1,097 images, we find that<em>: </em>(1) Visuals originating from traditional political actors prevailed among both Twitter discourses; (2) users shared substantial amounts of anti-EU, populist and, to a lesser extent, extremist images, though this content remained largely disjointed from the mainstream public debate; and (3) political humor emerged as a vector for anti-establishment and Eurosceptic themes, especially in discussions critical of the European project. We discuss the implications of our findings for the study of visual political communication and social media manipulation.

Conclusion

The final chapter reviews the key findings of the book, and reflects on the future direction of digital campaigning. The main conclusions are threefold: (1) Developments in digital campaigning follow a similar pattern across countries. A four-stage cycle of experimentation, standardization, community building, and individual voter mobilization is clearly evident across the book’s four case studies. (2) The pace of that development and countries’ current positions differ according to regime-level characteristics and levels of national technological advancement. Notably, parties and individual candidates can also play a significant role in shaping that process. In particular, mainstream leftist parties and some of the more prominent minor parties serve as key catalysts for change. (3) The “mainstreaming” of digital technology is fostering the growth of a new type of campaign operative—the apolitico—and a new condition of hypernormality in which power is centralized organizationally and systemically to an unprecedented degree.

The Trendsetter

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in the United States during the period 1994–2012. It does so by reviewing the findings from the secondary literature, and conducting original analysis of web content and national survey data. These data sources build a picture of key changes in the supply and demand for digital campaigning in the United States and particularly whether they fit the four-phase model of development. The results show that the model fits, and that US parties and voters were considerably faster in engaging with web campaigning than was the case elsewhere. This enthusiasm appeared to be driven, to an extent, by the more conducive regulatory environment and also innovation among left-wing organizations and particularly the Democrats from the middle of the first decade of the 2000s. Their ability to sustain activist involvement in their online cause beyond 2008, however, is challenged by the author’s findings.

Digital Campaigning across Space

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in comparative perspective. It does so using survey data from Wave 4 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) to measure the extent of digital voter contact occurring in eighteen countries (2011–2015). Based on the understanding that extensive voter mobilization is a key feature of a country’s entry into phase IV digital campaigning, the authors infer which nations have progressed more rapidly through the four phases, and are thus most advanced in their use of digital campaign tools. Using this measure, they find that the United States is the most advanced nation and Thailand the least. They investigate the rankings more systematically using multilevel modeling techniques, and find that presidential elections and higher internet penetration rates are most predictive of higher rates of digital campaign contact. The results are helpful in building expectations about the digital campaign performance of the four national case studies.

The Late Bloomer

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in France during the period 1994–2012. It does so by reviewing the findings from the secondary literature, and conducting original analysis of web content and national survey data. These data sources build a picture of key changes in the supply and demand for digital campaigning in France, and particularly whether they fit the four-phase model of development. The results show that French parties and voters were slower than their UK and Australian counterparts in engaging with web campaigning. The inertia was due in part to the presence of the rival digital infrastructure Minitel and extensive regulations governing campaign communication in France. The direct importation of US expertise from the Obama 2008 campaign saw a rapid acceleration of party usage, with the Socialists proving the most enthusiastic adopters. The response of voters, however, still proved less enthusiastic than for the other cases studied.

The Early Bloomer

This chapter examines developments in digital campaigning in Australia from 1994 to 2013. It does so by reviewing the findings from the secondary literature, and conducting original analysis of web content and national survey data. These data sources build a picture of key changes in the supply and demand for digital campaigning in Australia and particularly whether they fit the four-phase model of development. The results show that digital campaigning has broadly followed the anticipated cycle with parties making a strong early start. However, efforts slowed considerably following a highly publicized failure by prominent right-wing state politician and web campaigner Jeff Kennett. Much of the subsequent innovation appears to have been driven by the mainstream left and also the non-party online activist group GetUp!

When the Nerds Go Marching In

When the Nerds Go Marching In shows how digital technology has moved from the margins to the mainstream of campaign and election organization in contemporary democracies. Combining an extensive review of existing literature and comparative data sources with original survey evidence and web content analysis of digital campaign content across four nations—the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and the United States—the book maps the key shifts in the role and centrality of the internet in election campaigns over a twenty-year period. The chapters reveal how these countries have followed a four-phase model of digital campaign development which begins with experimentation, and is followed by a period of standardization and professionalization. Subsequent phases focus on increasingly strategic activities around the mobilization of activists and supporters, before switching to micro-targeted mobilizing of individual voters. The changes are mapped over time in each country from the perspective of both the campaigners (supply side), and that of voters (demand side), and the four nations are compared in terms of how far and fast they have moved through the developmental cycle. As well as providing the most comprehensive narrative charting the evolution of digital campaigning from its inception in the mid-1990s, the book also offers important insights into the national conditions that have been most conducive to its diffusion. Finally, based on the findings from the most recent phase of development, the book speculates on the future direction for political campaigns as they increasingly rely on digital tools and artificial intelligence for direction and decision-making during elections.