Aim: Over the years, marketing has become a more and more important tool in politics in general. In order to campaign successfully – and become the President-elect - in the U.S. Presidential Election, marketing is indispensable. This lead to enormous amounts of money spent on marketing. The aim of this research is to contribute to existing knowledge in the field of political marketing through the analysis of how marketing is done throughout a political campaign. The 2008 U.S. Presidential Primary Elections, together with a few key candidates have served as the empirical example of this investigation. Four research questions have been asked; what marketing strategies are of decisive outcome in the primary season of the 2008 political campaigning, how is political marketing differentiated depending on the candidate and the demographics of the voter, and finally where does the money come from to fund this gigantic political industry. Method: The exploratory method and case study as well as the qualitative research method have been used in this work. Internet has been an important tool in the search for, and collection of data. Sources used have been scientific articles, other relevant literature, home pages, online newspapers, TV, etc. The questions have been researched in detail and several main conclusions have been drawn from a marketing perspective. Correlations with theory have also been made. Result & Conclusion: In the primary season, the product the candidates have been selling is change. The Obama campaign successfully coined and later implemented this product into a grassroots movement that involved bottom-up branding of the candidate. This large base allowed for a different marketing strategy that implemented earlier and better organization in the caucus voting primary states resulting in an untouchable lead for the Obama campaign. The successful utilization of the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube led to enormous support, not least among the important group of young (first time) voters. It also served as the main base for funding throughout both the primary and the presidential season, effectively outspending the Clinton, and later, the McCain campaigns. This study has shown that there are differences in marketing when it comes to different presidential candidates even within the same party. Marketing activities and efforts also look different for different marketing groups. Suggestions for future research: This study was limited to the primary season; it would have been interesting to include the whole U.S. Presidential campaigning process from start to finish. In future research projects, it would also be interesting to see comparisons between political marketing in the U.S. and political marketing elsewhere, in Europe for example. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to increased knowledge when it comes to understanding the role of social media, grassroots movement, and bottom-up branding as a political marketing strategy. It also contributes to increased knowledge about political marketing in general. Furthermore, it shows the importance of marketing - and money - in American politics. Political parties as well as individual candidates may also find the results of this research useful for future campaigning.

This study investigates whether there is a link between the successful implementation of European cohesion policy and the voters' attitudes towards the EU. Using the French presidential elections in 2017 as a case study, we do not solely consider regional funds expenditures but also its induced effects in a region as further potential determinant of pro-European or eurosceptic voting behavior. In order to measure the effectiveness of EU structural funds and Cohesion Fund assignment, firm-level employment effects in French NUTS-2 regions stemming from project allocation during the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013 are estimated. The obtained average treatment effects are, in a next step, used together with other regional characteristics to capture the citizens' perceived exposure to the EU in an empirical voting model for the French presidential election in 2017. The estimation results reveal a significant negative relationship between the effectiveness of EU funds allocation and the vote share of the eurosceptic candidate Marine Le Pen. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The Phenomenon of Presidential Elections. The development of the elections of Czechslovak and Czech presidents 1918-2008. The topic of this thesis is an analysis of the development of the elections of the president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic from 1918 to 2008 in the context of a distinctive understanding of the role of the president in the collective memory of the Czech nation. The reason for the connection the analysis of presidential elections in the specified time period with the Czech experience of the perception of the president's role in the political system of the Czech Republic is the inseparable close link between the two topics within which the specific perception of a president in the eyes of Czech public influences the development of the institute of presidential elections and has the potential to successfully interpret it. The presidential election can therefore be considered a phenomenon within this meaning: it has specific historical, cultural and sociological features of the perception of the president's role in the collective memory of the Czech nation which were essential in the course of the functioning of the institute of the presidential election in Czech lands for further shaping of the form of this institute and these features have also made it a...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:31:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabio Ciaccia Rodrigues Caldas.pdf: 283770 bytes, checksum: fd505a781fbfdcfb6f6da31928bf0da6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-23 / In 1966 the first Military Government was ending in Brazil. Two groups were sharing the political power: The Army Forces, called Sorbonne and Linha Dura . This wanted the Ministry of War, Arthur da Costa e Silva, as a successor of the former President Castello Branco. Costa e Silva made his political campaign running around Brazil to know about the national problems and to show his proposal. The unusual think is the fact that the election was indirect and just the members of National Congress were entitled to vote, so the population was a part of the process. The objective of this research is to profile the Marshal Arthur da Costa e Silva though history facts that made him, in 1966, a candidate for Presidency of the Republic and to understand the marketing strategy used. The methodology to be used was literature, semi-structure interviews with people that were living at the time, and content analyses of the newspapers: O Estado de São Paulo and Jornal do Brasil. The objective was to show their positions during the campaign of the Presidential Election in 1966. / Em 1966 o Brasil chegava ao término do primeiro governo do regime militar. Disputavam o poder dois grupos das Forças Armadas, a Sorbonne e a Linha Dura. Esta indicou o nome do Ministro da Guerra Arthur da Costa e Silva como candidato à sucessão do Presidente Castello Branco. Costa e Silva fez campanha, percorrendo o Brasil para conhecer os problemas nacionais e apresentar suas propostas. O inusitado está no fato de a eleição ser indireta e apenas os membros do Congresso Nacional ter direito a voto, estando a população à margem da escolha do novo mandatário do país. O objetivo do trabalho é traçar o perfil do Marechal Arthur da Costa e Silva levantando fatos históricos que o tornaram, em 1966, um candidato viável à Presidência da República do Brasil e compreender a estratégia de marketing eleitoral utilizada. O trabalho utilizou como metodologia a pesquisa bibliográfica, entrevistas semiestruturadas com personagens que viveram a época e análise de conteúdo dos jornais O Estado de São Paulo e Jornal do Brasil, para indicar suas posições na cobertura das eleições presidenciais de 1966.

Ce travail cherche à rendre compte des enjeux socio-politiques qui ont caractérisé la campagne présidentielle mexicaine de 2006, ainsi que des stratégies discursives développées par les deux principaux candidats en lice, Andrés Manuel López Obrador et Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. En replaçant l’élection dans le cadre de la fin du régime autoritaire du PRI et de la transition démocratique au Mexique, nous nous attachons à montrer dans quelle mesure l’élection de 2006 s’inscrit dans la continuité des changements politiques et sociaux amorcés depuis les années 1970, et constitue en même temps un cas à part dans ce processus. La spécificité de cette élection naît de l’extrême incertitude qui pèse sur l’issue du scrutin, de l’affrontement qui se produit pour la première fois de l’histoire mexicaine contemporaine entre un parti de droite et une coalition de gauche ainsi que des stratégies discursives déployées par les candidats pour tenter de rallier leurs partisans à leur cause et de conquérir les électeurs indécis. En rupture avec les modalités de transmission du pouvoir propres au régime autoritaire, la conflictualité qui caractérise cette élection prend corps dans les manières de dire des candidats, et plus particulièrement dans leurs discours de meetings. L’étude des discours des candidats permet aussi bien de mettre au jour les mécanismes de persuasion et de légitimation à l’oeuvre dans les discours, que de saisir le lien qui les unit au positionnement politique et idéologique de chacun des candidats dans le cadre d’une médiatisation croissante du discours politique. / This dissertation aims to show the sociopolitical issues that characterized the 2006 presidential campaign in Mexico, as well as the discursive strategies used by the two main contenders, Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. By putting the election back into the context of the authoritarian regime ending and the democratic transition in Mexico, we will show up to what point the 2006 election is part of the continuous political and social changes that have been happening since the 1970’s and can be defined at the same time as a particular case in this process. The particularity of this election results from the very uncertain result of the ballot, the first confrontation in the contemporary Mexican history between a right-wing party and a left-wing coalition and the discursive strategies the contenders resorted to in order to make their supporters join them and to appeal to the floating voters. This conflictive election breaks off the way political power was passed on during the authoritarian regime, and takes shape through the candidates’speeches, particularly the political massive events. They reflect the Mexican situation and contribute to create some representation of Mexico and his political players as a result of language twists. The study of the contenders’ discursive strategies brings to the light the persuasion and legitimation processes that characterize their speeches and make clear their linkswith the political and ideological stance of each one of the contenders within the framework of the increasing media coverage of political discourse.

This thesis aims to analyse the use of stereotypes about the Latin-American minority in the rhetoric of presidential candidates, using the single case of the 2016 US Presidential Campaign. The primary focus is the binary relation Self-Other established by the candidates through the use of stereotypes about the minority group and themselves. The analysis is performed in a framework that combines representation theory, constructivism and post colonial theory. The speeches and debates of the candidates, which served as data, demonstrate that stereotypes are present and help represent the Latin-American group as a negative Other, a threat or victimized burden. At the same time, through the representation of this specific Other, the candidates are creating their Self political persona, which in this case is a hero who will protect the American society from the threat, or a hero who will rescue the poor from their own victimized situation. Both candidates show similarities in the use of generalized stereotypes to mention LatinAmericans or in the context in which they refer to them. While they differ in the way that they create the Other, their position to confront the problem yields a similar political persona, as both want to be rescuers. Trump portrays LatinAmericans as a threat to security or as a poor victim, while Clinton also refers to the group as a victim, but also as an asset to economy. The intention of this thesis is to contribute to the field of stereotypes in political discourse in relation to the establishment of binary oppositions.

This diploma thesis deals with political polarization of Czech society regarding the trust in all presidents from 1990 till today. It introduces the term 'political polarization' and its main research areas, especially various aspects of the electorate polarization. The thesis describes theories of voters' polarization, the specific relationship between polarization and ideological consistency, and topics of the polarizing influence of presidents, mass media and electoral process. The empirical section analyses the development of people's polarization in terms of trusting presidents and determines whether the groups declaring strong trust and distrust show specific sociodemographic characteristics, political orientation and political engagement. Datasets from The Public Opinion Research Centre's survey Our Society between the years 1990 and 2017 were used.

This essay studies the climate of discussion during the US Presidential election debates 2016 from a perspective of Deliberative democratic discussion criteria. It uses a statistical analysis to examine and describe the climate of discussion during the debates. The criteria are based on the theoretical work of James S. Fishkin and Robert C. Luskin, which closely points out five compontents/factors needed to get a healthy and reasonable climate of discussion. The essay suggests that the climate of discussion during the US elections has taken place on two different “battleground” (Outside and Inside formal debating forums). It further suggests that outside climate of discussion has been dominated by ugly tricks and “dirty talking” and the inside formal debating forums climate of discussion has been reasonable and healthy. The results of the analysis show that the US Presidential election debates have broken this pattern, mainly due to the republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.

The Thesis deals with the influence of new media on the organization of a political campaign. It is based on theories of political communication and new media, which it compares with real usage of these media during the US presidential campaign in 2012. The Thesis is divided into three parts; first of which deals with the theoretical framework of new media and political communication, including an outline of historic development and greatest changes that have occurred since 1950s. In second part, the system and milestones of American presidential elections are characterized, as they are very different from European elections. Both campaigns, Republican and Democratic, are also described. The last chapter is concerned with a particular usage of new media in both campaigns -- individual subchapters include depiction of presidential debates, which are an important part of the election process, international image of both candidates, negative campaigning distributed mainly by new media, and specific usage of new and social media by campaign teams. Volunteers constitute an integral part of the American voting system, which is why one subchapter describes their pursuits and organization.

The aim of this study was to examine differences and similarities in the news coverage among the presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the presidential election 2020. We also examined how the candidates are framed in the different newspapers. In this study, similarities and differences regarding national variances in news articles from Swedish and American newspapers, also where a important part of the research. We did a qualitative text analysis based on 48 online articles from 6 different newspapers, the 3 largest from each country. The newspapers in question are USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times from USA and Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen from Sweden. The result showed that there were more differences between the two candidates than similarities, in the way they were presented in news media. Donald Trump was often portrayed as the president that had a very harsh tone in his statements, and he was throwing out accusations towards Biden and the Democrats without having any facts to back them up. This made him look rather ignorant and sometimes even dumb. Biden, on the other hand, was portrayed as the one who is more fitting for the role as president, based on the writings about his previous experience, and many of the articles in the analysis portrayed him as a friendly family man. The focus point on both candidates during the election was who was leading the election, who was leading in which state, and how much that specific candidate was winning by. This was a topic that frequently showed up in articles from both countries and they often portrayed the whole election as some kind of contest or game, instead of focusing on what the candidates wanted to do and change about the country. The American newspapers more frequently wrote about the statistics when it came to who was leading the election, and their news coverage wasn't as clear as the Swedish news coverage. The Swedish newspaper often used secondary sources, for example from American newspapers, since they weren't able to be where the election takes place, which means they are re-telling the things that happened during the election. Other than that, there weren't that many differences between the news coverage in the US and Sweden.