DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL STUDIES
POLITICS 345 Political Marketing
COURSE SYLLABUS
Semester One 2007 | Tuesday 8-10 Lectures and seminar
Wednesday 12-1 Seminar
Dr. Jennifer Lees-Marshment
Course Convenor and Senior Lecturer
12 Symonds Street, G01
(09) 373 7599 extn 89388
Office Hours: see office door
25
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will study how and why political organisations such as political parties use business techniques and concepts. It will not just explore the use of marketing communication in selling politics, but how politicians use market research to inform their design of policy and behaviour. Topics will include the rise of consumerism and changes in the electoral market place, political marketing theory and models, recent examples of political party marketing in a number of countries such as New Zealand, the UK and US. Students will be able to relate political marketing analysis to traditional political science literature in areas such as media studies, electoral behaviour and party organisation, as well as political theory. The course will therefore explore themes and questions such as the effect of political marketing on winning elections, Americanisation and globalisation through discussing the copying of political marketing practice from one country to another, the impact of the electoral and party system on political marketing approach, and the role of the ‘political consumer’ or citizen. There will be debates on wider issues such as the impact of political marketing on the relationship between government and citizens, relation to theories of democracy and the impact on government’s ability to forge war.
PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES
Course Aims
To provide students with a detailed and comprehensive awareness of how marketing has permeated the political arena. To appreciate how and why political marketing has developed over time. To understand how marketing may be used within the political environment, but also appreciate the differences between marketing business and marketing politics. To analyse the difficulties in introducing marketing into politics, questioning the ethical issues arising from marketing politics, arguing the benefits marketing may bring to politics. To encourage critical thinking about the practice of modern day politics, the international spread of ideas and consultants, and comparative.
Course objectives
· Comprehend the concept of comprehensive political marketing: understand the political marketing is not just about spin or election campaigns
· Understand why political marketing has developed, and its relation to party decline, increase in electoral volatility etc
· Develop inter-disciplinary skills by applying basic marketing concepts to political party behaviour
· Discuss the potential and limitations of marketing politics, both practically and normatively
· Demonstrate skills in comparative analysis by examining the use of political marketing in a number of countries and systems
· Appreciate the different academic perspectives in the field of political marketing
· Debate topical issues which arise from political marketing
Transferable Skills
Critical and comprehension skills will be developed through dealing with the course material, as well the ability to conduct comparative and cross-disciplinary anlaysis. Debating and presentational skills will be encouraged through group work and debate-lectures. The written assessment will require writing and reporting skills, encouraging primary research skills including contact with political actors and documentary analysis. The examination will test wider comprehension of knowledge, theory and understanding of political marketing.
COURSE STRUCTURE
This course consists of a two hour lecture and seminar and a one hour seminar each week. The two hours will be delivered in various ways, designed to stimulate interest, facilitate greater absorption of knowledge and understanding, and develop transferable skills such as analysis, making an argument and working in groups. Seminars will usually consist of a formal lecture, a break, followed by group work, a video, or visiting speaker.
The one hour seminar will provide further opportunity for small group work to increase understanding of the topic.
Students are expected to participate in all class formats: see below.
EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
Lectures: Students are expected to attend all lectures and take notes as they will provide the basis for discussion in group work, debate lectures and tutorials as well as help with continuous assessment. Students should download and print off lecture outlines provided on CECIL prior to attending a lecture, to aid comprehension.
Power point slides will be used for lectures; it is advised you print them off three to a page and then use then to aid your notetaking. Please note that the lecture outlines are not lecture notes. You cannot miss a lecture and then go to cecil and expect to get the notes. The outlines are purely a guide to taking notes, without photos for copyright reasons, and without too much detail.
Lecture material will be drawn primarily from the course textbook, so students should not be surprised if they find significant overlap between the reading and lectures. Some of these areas have not previously been covered by other academics so there isn’t another book that covers them all. I will however provide brief content in lectures to avoid too much duplication with the understanding that you then have the books to explore for detail.
Debates: In the debates students will be expected to work in small groups and then present points the rest class to form a debate. Discussion will then become open to the floor so that points can be exchanged and debated at length. This will require students to create points to argue one side of an argument, to improve their critical thinking, brainstorming skills, and ability to argue.
Visiting speakers/guest lecturers: Visiting speakers from outside the university may come and speak to students drawing on their practical experience of a topic. Students will be expected to ask questions or make comments at the end.
Group work: Students will be put into small groups and asked to discuss various questions. If within the seminar, they may then be asked to report back to the whole class. Tutorials are also a chance for you to ask the lecturer if there is something you didn’t understand, and to digest the material a second time in a different way. Students should come prepared with notes about the issues noted in the syllabus for each tutorial.
Self-directed preparation: Debates are set on topical subjects, to enable students to consider wider issues from the marketing of politics, including practical difficulties and normative or ethical issues of political marketing. They require independent thinking and searching using sources such as the internet and newspapers. Such work will help students with the assessment and examination.
READINGS
Essential texts
Students will be expected to read the set essential reading for each teaching session/topic. A list of this is below for each class. This course is research led so that you will be taught the latest findings from academic study. No one text covers the whole course, because political marketing is a new and rapidly evolving area, and the course and assessment will cover political marketing in the past as well as the present situation.
Two texts are recommended therefore, one covering British politics up to 1999, the other is a comparative volume. Copies of the textbooks were ordered to be made available for purchase from the UBS Books. A few copies were also ordered for the Library/Short Loan Collection (Kate Edgar Commons). We will draw on both in the course.
Lees-Marshment, Jennifer. (2001). Political marketing and British political parties. (Manchester University Press). (ISBN 0-7190-6017-6)
D. Lilleker and J. Lees-Marshment, (eds) (2005) PoliticalMarketing inComparativePerspective (Manchester University Press). (ISBN 0-7190-6871-1)
Other essential reading is in the library, and is often available as an e-resource which you can download and print off, especially if it is a journal article.
Political Marketing Coursebook
Essential reading not in the textbook, or not available from the library, such as unpublished conference papers, is in the coursebook.
Further Readings
Other readings, whether articles or books, will be recommended to supplement essential reading, and should be used particularly if you will be revising or writing an essay on that particular area. Journals are often available electronically, so check voyager for this.
How to Locate Readings
In the Lecture Programme (below) you will see essential and recommended readings.
· Where CB appears beside a reading, that reading is included in the Coursebook of materials distributed in the first week of class.
· Where TB appears this reference is from one of the two textbooks prescribed for this course
· Where SL appears beside a reading, that reading is available from the Short Loan collection.
· Where e-resource is beside a reading, this means you can access the item electronically via the library catalogue
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Library Website
This course has a electronic resource website.
Library e-resources
Journal articles are often available electronically: check voyager for this
Cecil
Course materials and lecture presentations will be posed on Cecil. Please ensure that your email address is current.
Website Links – general sources
Students are encouraged to read newspapers and search on-line for recent political events as this is a rapidly moving area. Where appropriate internet links have been suggested for students to follow. Please accept apologies if these are broken as it is not always possible to check them.
UK politics: As political marketing has been researched more in the UK than New Zealand, a number of examples with come from Britain. If you’re not too familiar with UK politics a good guide to search is to explore links on the internet; see for example http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/ukbase.htm or www.politics.co.uk
This is also true for other countries such as the US: the Keele resources page http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/ as links to various countries and events such as the Iraq War.
See also below for other links.
Party election broadcasts, UK: http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/peb.htm
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/
Ananova: http://www.ananova.com/
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/
Guardian/Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk
The Times: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/
The Electronic News stand has information on many journals and magazines, often including a list of contents of the current issue and an archive: http://www.enews.com/
News link claims to have the most comprehensive set of links to US electronic media publications. There is also a limited selection of non-US links: http://www.newslink.org/
POLITICAL MARKETING LECTURE AND TUTORIAL SCHEDULE 2007
Wk / Lecture and seminar Tuesday 8-10am / Seminar Wednesday 12-11
The nature of political marketing / Tuesday 27th February
The course, and brief lecture on Political marketing / Wednesday 28th February
Group work: political marketing: what and why?
2
Marketing Conservatism / Tuesday 6th March
Lecture: Thatcher the marketing pioneer and international decline of the Conservative brand
Visiting speaker from The National Party t.b.c / Wednesday 7th March
Team work: Political marketing plan for the National Party
3
UK New Labour & NZ Labour / Tuesday 13th March
Lecture: UK New Labour and NZ Labour under Clark
Debate: Was NZ or UK Labour most market-oriented? / Wednesday 14th March
Small Group discussion: Marketing, the Market-Oriented Party, and Ideology
4
The effectiveness of marketing techniques / Tuesday 20th March
Lecture: UK Labour 1987 and Peter Mandelson; National and UK Tories 2005; the SOP
DVD How to win elections & discussion / Wednesday 21st March
Debate: Which NZ 2005 campaign was more effective – Labour or National?
5
Marketing smaller parties & in PR systems / Tuesday 27th March
Lecture Marketing smaller parties, in PR systems, and new democracies
Visiting speaker on marketing smaller parties t.b.c / Wednesday 28th March
Group work: Choosing a political marketing strategy for a smaller NZ party and essay advice
6
Report preparation / Essay 1 due – Monday 2nd April
Tuesday 3rd April
Report preparation: group work and presentations, and opportunity for questions / Wednesday 4th April
No Class – extra office hour
See me for advice about the report; otherwise engage in self-directed work
Easter break
7
Internal Marketing: failure to change parties / Tuesday 24th April
Lecture: UK Conservatives 1997-01 and barriers to becoming market-oriented
Visiting Speaker from the Labour Party t.b.c and/or discussion about the barriers to political marketing / Wednesday 25th April
No class – anzac day – finish report
Report due – Friday 27th April
8
International political marketing: Product designs for sale? / Tuesday 1st May
Lecture: Democratic parties by global design
Group work: comparing different political marketing strategies & consequences / Wednesday 2nd May
George W Bush 2000 and compassionate conservatism: a comprehensive MOP?
9
Marketing in government / Tuesday 8th May
Lecture: Communication of delivery, the media and staying market-oriented
Debate: is the media or politicians to blame for voters dissatisfaction with parties’ delivery? / Wednesday 9th May
Making the product tangible: evaluate existing mechanisms to demonstrate delivery, and create new ways of making the product tangible
10
International relations policy by polling / Tuesday 15th May
Short lecture: positions of Bush, Clark and Blair on the Iraq War
Debate: Which leader was market-oriented? / Wednesday 16th May
Political consultant plan to a) keep your leader in touch in government or b) communicate delivery
11
Marketing politics / Tuesday 22nd May
DVD: Trust in politicians
Discussion: can/does political marketing help politicians re-engage with the public? / Wednesday 23rd May
Essay exercise: what barriers are there to successful political marketing?
12
Political marketing and democracy / Tuesday 29th May
Short lecture: The Political Marketing Revolution
Debate: Should the citizen or political leaders decide how the country is run? / Wednesday 30th May
No Class – extra office hour
See me for advice about the second essay; otherwise self-directed preparation
Essay 2 due Monday 4th June
LECTURE AND TUTORIAL PROGRAMME – WITH READINGS
1
The nature of political marketing / Tuesday 27th February
The course, and short lecture on Political marketing / Wednesday 28th February
Group work: political marketing: what and why?
Essential reading
1. Lees-Marshment, Jennifer. (2001). Political marketing and British political parties. Chapter 1. TB
2. Jennifer Lees-Marshment, (2001) ‘The Marriage of Politics and Marketing’, Political Studies, 49(4):692-713 e-resource, EBSCO