Under the Watchful Eye: Managing Presidential Campaigns in the Television Era, by Mathew D. McCubbins with John H. Aldrich, F. Christopher Arterton, Samuel L. Popkin, and Larry J. Sabto
| Autor: | Samuel L. Popkin, L. Sandy Maisel, F. Christopher Arterton, John H. Aldrich, Larry J. Sabto, Mathew D. McCubbins |
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| Rok vydání: | 1993 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Political Science Quarterly. 108:174-175 |
| ISSN: | 1538-165X 0032-3195 |
| DOI: | 10.2307/2152501 |
| Popis: | This collection of essays grew out of a three-day symposium on Campaigning for the Presidency held at the University of California, San Diego, in December 1991. While the conference covered a range of topics, the campaign experts gathered in southern California on the eve of the 1992 primary season felt strongly that the increased power of television represented the most significant change in campaigning for the presidency in modern times. This volume stands as a careful and precise review of the criticisms of the expanding role of television and the consequences of that role. While the essays in this volume are universally excellent, Mathew McCubbins's opening essay on "Party Decline and Presidential Campaigns in the Television Age" is so outstanding that the book would be recommended for that contribution alone. McCubbins's extensive literature review examines all of the claims concerning the detrimental effects that increased prominence of television has had on the election process. He then proceeds to examine the reasoning behind those claims, seeking to separate those based in fact from those based merely on the dissemination of conventional (and unexplored) wisdom. Skillfully employing a rational choice model of both voter and campaign participant behavior, McCubbins argues that most of the criticisms fall under carefully scrutiny. Not only is his essay important as a substantive contribution, it is also a model of careful reasoning and precise analysis, the exact type of model to which all students of political science should be exposed. My emphasis on the first article by McCubbins is not meant to detract from the important insights provided in the remaining essays. John Aldrich argues that the weakening of political parties (caused by many factors over a period of years) led to candidate-centered campaigns and that the spread of television extended the phenomenon of candidate-centered campaigning from the local to the national level. He further contends that these campaigns, so heavily focused on the individual candidates, are forced by television to focus on individual events and responses to those events, and above all on candidate image, rather than on issues. Chris Arterton takes a slightly different tack, arguing that content does matter but that because of the needs of television to present short stories that attract an audience, the kinds of issues stressed are those that inflame the electorate and divide the public. His argument is that the pressures of winning elections dictate presentation of issues to attract the undecided and convince them not to vote for the opponent. The net result is a decrease in allegiance to either party or individual candidates, resulting in voter unrest with the process. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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