Data-Driven Campaigning and Political Parties
Five Advanced Democracies Compared
Katharine Dommett author Glenn Kefford author Simon Kruschinski author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:28th Mar '24
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
What is data-driven campaigning? According to prevailing accounts, this idea describes the rise of increasingly sophisticated, highly targeted, and often invasive uses of data deployed to suppress votes, manipulate voter preferences, or boost a candidates' popularity. The power of data is seen to be transforming campaigning practice and raising democratic concerns. And yet, there is a significant problem with these ideas: we have at best a partial understanding of how data-driven campaigning is practiced, and limited clarity about its implications. Presenting data from interviews with over 300 professional campaigners in Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK and US, we provide unique insight into the components of data-driven campaigning by political parties. This book makes three key contributions. First, distinguishing between data, analytics, technology and personnel, they give unmatched descriptive insight into these four components of data-driven campaigning, revealing significant variation in its operationalization, depending on party and country context. Second, introducing a novel multi-level theoretical framework, they isolate systemic, regulatory, and party level variables that help explain the reasons for these differences. Third, they consider the implications of their findings for debates about democracy, data and technology in the 21st century. Cumulatively, these contributions reveal that data-driven campaigning is not inherently problematic. Giving voice to practitioner perspectives, through interviews and innovative vignettes, this book recasts the debate around data-driven campaigning, offering important lessons for scholars, campaigners, and policymakers alike.
This is an incredible book that takes a much-needed internationally comparative approach, offering important and nuanced insights into the practice of Data-Driven Campaigning. It is a captivating and thought-provoking read for anyone interested in data use in modern election campaigns. * Prof. dr. Sanne Kruikemeier, Professor of Digital Media and Society, Wageningen University & Research *
Dommett et al. present a highly timely, rigorous and pioneering interrogation of the concept and reality of Data-Driven Campaigning across Advanced Industrial Democracies. Drawing on a rich array of interviews with practitioners they effectively deconstruct and 'downsize' the hype surrounding the adoption of these new techniques and reveal that, as with earlier eras of campaign innovation, 'one size' does not fit all. Organizational culture and institutional context still play a vital role in shaping how when and why new technologies are used in voter communication and mobilization. * Professor Rachel Gibson, University of Manchester *
Dommett, Kefford, and Kruschinski have given us one of the only comparative, multi-national investigations of data campaigning. Their incredible attention to the specifics and complexities of DDC provides a framework that will be foundational to the field. * Dr Jesse Baldwin-Philippi, Fordham University *
Data Driven-Campaigning is a game-changing book. Dommett, Kefford, and Kruschinski do an outstanding job in disentangling the concept. The book is eloquent, conceptually rich, and empirically based. The implications of Data Driven Campaigning for democracy are profound. With this book, readers are provided guidance by the world leading scholars in the field. * Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam *
Recommended. * Choice *
ISBN: 9780197570227
Dimensions: 156mm x 235mm x 18mm
Weight: 494g
254 pages