Political campaigns today are presented as products of bottom-up participation, not top-down direction. But even if a campaign appears grassroots-driven, it’s likely to be run from the centre.
Miliband is fighting a grassroots campaign - but will it push Labour over the line?
Nick Ansell/PA Wire
With the 2015 General Election set for May 7, Britain’s political parties have lost no time in stepping up their campaign activities. The country faces four months of intense electioneering, as the parties…
A campaign pro before his time: Benjamin Disraeli.
Wikimedia Commons
We have become used to politicians talking about their emotions and their domestic lives. Indeed, it sometimes seems you can’t get anywhere in politics until you’ve been photographed with your arm wrapped…
To find a revolution in campaigning comparable with micro-targeting you have to look back beyond the ‘Kevin 07’ online pitch to Gough Whitlam’s 1972’s TV-driven ‘It’s Time’ triumph.
AAP/Dan Peled
Australian election campaigns are facing another revolutionary change, which has the potential to transform the electoral contest, redefine campaign funding and even revive political parties. The “micro-targeting…
Last week there was a bit of a hullabaloo when it was discovered that the international programme director for Greenpeace, Pascal Husting, was flying to work from Luxembourg to Amsterdam a few times a…
Communities across eastern Australia are fighting against coal seam gas mining … and winning.
Kate Ausburn/Flickr
Community coal seam gas campaigns have had some big wins lately, most recently in the suspension of the drilling licence for CSG company Metgasco in New South Wales. Referred to the Independent Commission…
By declaring climate change a ‘great moral challenge’, Kevin Rudd owned the issue. That set him up for a political fall when the Coalition and Greens blocked his path.
EPA/Matthew Cavanaugh
Climate change is a problem for democracy. The scientific modelling is compelling and the evidence alarming. The problems begin when the science crosses into the democratic sphere of politics and public…
Sound familiar? Tasmanian Liberal leader Will Hodgman says the election is ‘the most important in a generation’, a claim symptomatic of the recycling of political narratives.
AAP/David Beniuk
South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria are heading to the polls this year to pick their next state governments. All indications are that these campaigns will have more than a dash of déjà vu about them…
The average Australian spends more than five hours watching YouTube every month. With such high viewership, it’s no surprise that interest groups are reaching out with YouTube to try to change people’s…
Two’s company, three’s a crowd, one is the entire Green Party.
Chris Radburn/PA
Comparatively speaking, these are successful times for Britain’s Green Party. They have their first elected MP at Westminster, two Members of the European Parliament, two Members of the London Assembly…
Beware the fake how-to-vote cards on election day - they’re just one of many tricks parties may use to gain an advantage at the polls.
AAP/Dean Lewins
In the final countdown to polling day, Australian political history suggests that political parties will start to fight dirty in critical seats, using just-legal tricks in an attempt to get the winning…
Kevin Rudd has recruited three strategists from the US to help his election chances, continuing a trend of the ‘internationalisation’ of campaign craft.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Kevin Rudd has imported three members of US president Barack Obama’s successful 2012 campaign team to advise on Labor’s September 7 re-election efforts. This announcement has already achieved one of the…
The Colin Barnett led Coalition is set to retain government in Western Australia, but Labor under Mark McGowan has shown encouraging signs for the future.
Tony McDonough/AAP
Putting your finger on the pulse of the WA public can be difficult at times. Even the day before an election. While the nation swims in federal polls, at a state level, survey data of Western Australians…
Julia Gillard has called a September election, will we be able to tell the difference between governing and campaigning?
AAP/Alan Porrit
Last week, prime minister Julia Gillard told the Australian public they’d be able to tell the difference between campaigning and governing during this election year. Over the following days, which saw…
The stage is set for the Romney/Ryan election night event in Boston, Massachusetts.
EPA/Matt Campbell
It is now election day in the United States. You can compare being on an American political campaign on this final frenetic day to spawning salmon giving their all to leap waterfalls before they die. Media…
Slogans such as “Real Change On Day One” have featured heavily during Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
EPA/Shawn Thew
In these last days of the United States presidential election, the images from the campaign trail document the confusion of the Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan campaign. The unclear Republican message is no match…
Volunteers work the phones to “get out the vote” for the Romney/Ryan campaign in Virginia.
EPA/Shawn Thew
Hurricane Sandy will leave more than physical destruction in its wake. Arriving just days before the US presidential election, the storm could have a political fallout as well. Sandy has affected the key…
President Obama is mobbed like a rockstar wherever he goes, but how well do his public statements connect with the electorate?
EPA/Michael Nelson
Speaking to a room full of wealthy donors at a private fundraising event in May, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said 47% of American voters believed they were “victims” and “entitled” to…
Do lawn signs like these have any effect on prospective voters?
Flickr/Animantis
As the November elections draw nearer, front yards across America are sprouting campaigns signs broadcasting their chosen political candidates. These lawn signs have been a traditional part of politics…