The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs

Abstract

It is hardly possible to understand modern political marketing without following its evolution. Analyzing the concept of political marketing from different perspectives furnishes a uniform picture, which is the basis of the advanced theory of political marketing proposed here. The advanced model of political marketing brings together into a single framework the two campaigns: the permanent marketing campaign and the political marketing process. These two components are realized within a particular country’s political system, and the system depends, above all, on political tradition as well as the efficiency of the developed democratic procedures. Politicians are in the business of selling hope to people. This hope is related to convincing people that it is this particular politician or political party that guarantees successful management of national security, social stability, and economic growth on behalf of the electorate. From this perspective, the major challenge to political marketing is to connect a politician’s words, actions, and vision into a realistic transformation of the electorate’s dreams and aspirations (Newman, The mass marketing of politics: democracy in an age of manufactured images. Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1999).