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Political campaigns are as old as government--in fact, any system might have them. One early example of a political campaign might be the campaign to execute or banish Socrates from Athens in the 5th century BC.
The defining characteristic of political campaigns is the involvement of the people to try to influence government or other important social bodies. Campaigning on specific issues is related to lobbying and propaganda but is distinguished from the first by the involvement of mass action and the second by the fact that it is limited in scope and acts within the constitutional system.
Hallmarks of modern campaigning are the combined use of mass communication methods, the media, face-to-face contact and public protest. Electronic campaigning is a growth area within the techniques used.
Compare the noisy demonstrations held by the campaign to ban genetically modified organisms with the tactics adopted by corporations to try to gain tax or trade concessions.
Political campaigns have existed as long as there have been informed citizens to campaign amongst. Often mass campaigns are started by the less privileged or anti-esablishment viewpoints (as against more powerful interests whose first resort is lobbying). The phenomenon of political campaigns are tightly tied to special interest groups and political parties. The first 'modern' campaign is thought to be William Gladstone's Midlothian campaign in the 1880s, although there may be earlier recognisably modern examples from the 19th century.
Democratic societies have regular election campaigns, but political campaigning can occur on particular issues even in non-democracies so long as freedom of expression is allowed.The campaign is established with a particular goal in mind; pass or repeal a law, win an election, or similar.
The focus of the campaign is to reach as many people as possible and persuade them to support the goal of the campaign; and hopefully contribute actively to the campaign itself with time or money.
One of the first priorities for the campaign team (which may be as small as one inspired individual, or a heavily-resourced group of professionals) is to establish the campaign message. This is a brief summary of what the goal is and why the average voter should support it. This draws on techniques from advertisingAdvertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, persona and propaganda.
The message is then communicated by a number of methods. Possible methods are below. Not all are appropriate for a given campaign.
The campaign will typically seek to identify supporters at the same time as getting its message across. These identified supporters are then sent additional information requesting their active support. This can involve 'joining' the campaign, donating money, doing voluntary work, writing letters to the media, voting in a particular way, and generally proeslytising for the cause.
The ideal of the campaign for the numbers of people involved, the media presence, the funds available, the hours worked by volunteers and the number of people reached by the message to increase rapidly and to keep increasing until the goal of the campaign is reached.
Ongoing campaigns can become entrenched as institutions, charities or political parties. Equally exisiting bodies use campaigns to keep themselves active and relevant.
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