lit review dec 10 final

8/8/2019 Lit Review Dec 10 FINAL

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Chapter Two: Literature Review

Introduction

This thesis investigates the impact of the Web on local level political

campaigns in the UK. The end goal is to develop an improved

understanding of the role of the Web in local campaigning, placing

the effects of the Web in the context of existing literature and

creating a typology that describes how the effects of the Web

manifest in local level campaigns across different campaign types.

The development of the Web as an element of local campaigninghas so far, not been investigated in either the local campaigning

literature or online campaign literature and so little is known about

how online campaigns are affecting local level campaigns. This

poses interesting questions as local campaigns retain significant

influence over the outcome of elections in the UK despite the

apparent dominance of the national level campaign (Denver &

Hands, 1997, Johnston & Pattie, 1995). Their relevance also looks

set to increase as parties seek to rationalise their campaign efforts,

concentrating on key battleground seats, in a limited way becoming

more locally orientated (Norris, 2000). At the same time local

campaigns are growing in significance the Web is playing a larger

role in everyday life, with political campaigning no exception. As

well as a larger role, the character of the Web itself is thought to be

changing, with the emergence of new services based around an

architecture of participation often referred to Web 2.0. (OReilly,

20050 These new services open up opportunities for campaigns to

interact with electors online and possibly have ramifications for

campaign organisation overall. This further underscores the need to

develop an understanding of how the Web is affecting local levelcampaigns.

This research conceptualises the effect of the web on local

campaigns as manifesting in three areas:

Firstly the campaign mode through creating new ways for

campaigns to reach electors. In essence this area deals with

the choice of tools by campaigns, i.e. what they use to contact

electors


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Secondly by affecting the style of campaigns i.e. how

campaign modes are used to contact electors

Finally, by affecting campaign organisation i.e. the

organisational relationships between the campaign,

supporters, electors, and national and regional parties

Although there is a possibility the Web is forming a distinctive new

campaign type unrelated to what has gone before, it is the position

of this research that online campaigns at the current time, are more

likely to use the Web to augment existing campaign types rather

than replace them. So how the Web affects these different areas of

the campaign is likely to vary dependent on the type of campaign

they are located in. Previous work on local campaigning in the UK

has given rise to a number of campaign types, of which Fisher andDenver's (2009) indices of traditionalism and modernisation provide

the starting point for this analysis. The index of traditionalism

describes a traditional campaign, built on doorstep canvassing,

window posters and local organisational support. The second index

measures a campaigns modernisation, based on the use of

telephone canvassing, direct mail and centrally supplied tools such

as lists of voters and party software.

The overall argument of this thesis is that offline campaign type,either traditional or modernised, will be a significant factor in

predicting how the Web affects local level campaign mode, style

and organisation. With campaigns using the Web to augment and

further the decisions they have already made about their

campaigns.

In the context of the traditional campaign online campaigns are

predicted to be based on Web 2.0 modes of campaigning, be

interactive in style, and decentralised in organisation. In the case of

modernised campaigns they are predicted to use Web 1.0 modes,focus on information provision styles and centralised organisation.


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Fig X: Hypothesised effects of web use on local campaigns and how

they relate to research questions

Mode Style Organisation

Offline Traditional Doorstep canvas,

Public meetings

Dialogue, face to face Strong, independent local

organisation

Modern Direct mail, Phone

banks

Monologue, printed

word, video,

advertising

Strong central party

organisation and

influence

Online Traditional Web 2.0 platforms,

Architecture of

participation

Dialogue, online

interaction

Strengthen local

networks,

decentralisation

Modern Web 1.0, vanilla

websites

Monologue, online

information provision

Strengthen central party

control, centralisation

Research Question 1 Research Question 2 Research Question 3


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In order to test these hypotheses, this research aims to answer

three research questions, each of which relates to a specific area -

campaign mode, style and organisation. The results of these

research questions will then form the basis of a typology of local

level online campaigns which will add to our understanding of how

the Web affects i.e. manifests itself, in different types of local

campaigns. If the empirical evidence supports the overall argument,

that campaign type will predict the effects of the online campaign

type, then there is a basis for creating a typology based on existing

campaign types, traditional online campaigns and modern online

campaigns (and possible hybrids of these ideal types). Should some

other factor prove more influential then it will be necessary to

reconsider this argument as a basis for understanding the effects ofthe Web. There also exists the potential for an entirely new type of

local campaign, unrelated to previous categorisations, new and

distinct in of itself that may be the case if online campaigns are

completely unrelated to any other measureable factors.

RQ1 How did offline campaign type affect the adoption

of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 modes of online

campaigning in local campaigns at the 2010 UK

general election?

The first question aims to create a statistical model of Web 1.0 and

Web 2.0 adoption in local level campaigns in the UK, controlling for

factors highlighted by previous research as being influential in the

adoption of the Web overall and adding in campaign type as an

explanatory variable.

Should offline campaign type be shown to be influential, this will

support the hypothesis that the effect of the web in terms of new

campaign modes is driven, in whole or in part by their existing

campaign type. Should this prove to be the case then it will justify a

typology of local level online campaigns based on traditional and

modern campaign types. Should campaign type not prove to be a

significant factor then the central argument of the thesis, that

campaign type is tempering the effects of the Web in local level

campaigns, will need to be re-evaluated based on what factors are

shown to be significant. If no factor is shown to be significant then

there may be a case for saying that modes of online campaigning

are emerging independently of existing, measureable factors.


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This question will be answered by using data from the 2010

Electoral Agent Survey and the 2010 British Representation Study,

which provide a range of variables which have been shown in

previous work to be predictors of campaign web adoption overall.

The Electoral Agent Survey also contains the variables required torecreate the indices of traditional and modern campaigning

developed by Fisher and Denver. The resulting model will then be

analysed to see if it provides support for the hypothesis that

campaign type is a predictor of the adoption of Web 1.0 and 2.0

modes of online campaigning.

RQ2 How did offline campaign type affect the style of

Web use by campaigns at the local level in the 2010

UK General Election?

This question seeks to create another statistical model, but in this

instance the outcome variable is based on the style of the online

campaign, not the mode. The outcome variables in these models

will be based on measures of interactive and information provision

in campaign web presences.

This question essentially acts as a check on the assumption that

Web 2.0 modes of campaigning are inherently interactive whilst

Web 1.0 modes of campaigning are based around informationprovision. This is not always the case, as Web 2.0 platforms can be

closed down, or used in a non-interactive way, whilst Web 1.0 sites

can be upgraded to encourage user contributions e.g. by adding a

forum. If support can be found for an effect from campaign type on

online campaign style, then it can be added to the final typology. If

on the other hand campaign type is not found to be predictive, then

again there may be reason to re-evaluate the basis for

understanding the effect of the Web on local level campaigns.

This question will be answered by using data collected byresearcher observation of online campaigns in the North West of

England during the 2010 General Election. This is smaller data set

than available for RQ1, but it offers a far more textured

understanding of online campaigns, including measures of feedback

mechanisms, the regularity of updates and requests for support.


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RQ3 How did the Web affect campaign organisation at

the local level in the 2010 UK General Election in

different kinds of campaign?

The final question aims to evaluate the effect of the Web oncampaign organisation across different campaign types.

There are a number of hypothesised scenarios about the Webs

impact on political organisation, ranging from acting as a

decentralising force to encouraging centralisation. It is in this, more

than any other area that the Web has the potential to be

transformative.

As with other online campaign mode and style, online campaign

organisation is hypothesised as being heavily related to offlinecampaign type with modernised campaigns being more centralised

and traditional campaigns less so. Where this question differs from

the ones before it is that it is not possible to isolate the effects of

the online campaigns as easily. Online campaign modes and style

are restricted to the online realm, but organisation deals with the

totality of the campaign. In this instance a purely quantitative

approach would be difficult as it would be difficult to isolate the

effect of the Web on the whole of campaign organisation. A more

case study approach however would allow for the various nuancesof campaign organisation to be investigated from multiple

perspectives.

This necessitates a qualitative approach to the question. Answering

this question will be done through a series of case studies of highly

modernised and highly traditional campaigns. It may be possible at

this point to also draw on the results of questions one and two in

order to target these case studies to campaigns that may represent

the archtypes of any final typology. So for instance, if the results of

questions one and two support the hypotheses that onlinecampaigns of traditional campaigns will be Web 2.0 based and

highly interactive, then one of the case studies will be a highly

traditional offline campaign which is Web 2.0 based and interactive

online campaign. Similarly, these criteria can vary if questions one

and two support different conclusions.

Wider impacts

The overall goal is to build towards a better understanding of how

the Web is affecting local campaigns, and how these effects are


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manifested in both traditional and modern campaigns. In the final

analysis it is hoped that a working typology of local web campaigns

can be developed which will allow for a better understanding of how

online campaigns manifest at the local level.

In addition, this research brings together two areas of study that

have previously been isolated from one another, local level

campaigns and online campaigns. Not enough is known about how

these two fields overlap and interact. It is hoped by drawing on both

these literatures this research will allow them to speak more directly

to one another.

The discussion of online campaigns and their impact on organisation

also fits squarely in the midst of the party decline literatures. As

parties have struggled to adapt to social change in the late 20th andearly 21st century, they have seen party rolls fall and partisanship

amongst voters decrease. Whether this has come about through

parties own actions, or has driven parties to respond, the end result

has been a professionalisation and a centralisation of power in

political parties that has further affected incentives to participate in

political parties. The end point of this process is disputed however,

with an acknowledged danger that parties will begin to lose their

legitimacy. In the UK, a system where parties have a strong role in

the running of government, a loss of faith in parties may welltranslate to a loss of faith in the system as a whole.

One possible solution to the issue of party decline is to improve

parties responsiveness to their membership and wider supporters. If

party supporters feel they have greater efficacy then this may go

some way to encouraging participation by providing enhanced

incentives. In part, motivations for participation in campaigns come

from a sense of contribution to a wider aim, the exclusion of

supporters from the day to day running of parties as they have

adopted a more professionalised and centralised approach is one

possible explanation of a lack of interest in political parties. E-

campaigning is only a small part of the wider picture, but the ability

of supporters to open dialogues with candidates and campaigns

through technology creates the potential for a more interactive and

responsive form of campaigning.

There also remains a question of causality inherent in this thesis, is

the Web actually leading to more grassroots campaigns, or are

more grassroots campaigns using the Web? This thesis adopts asocial shaping position on this question, arguing that Web use will


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be primarily a product of existing campaign factors i.e. that

campaigns that are more grassroots use the Web to this end, hence

the predicted link between campaign type and web use. However

this question needs to be investigated in more depth as it is

conceivable that Web use may be driving campaigns to behave in amore grassroots orientated way, particularly where Web use has

unforeseen or unintentional consequences for campaigns. For

instance, it may be difficult for a campaign that sets up a web

presence with the intention of using it in a top-down way to ignore

the resulting outputs in the form of comment and criticism, in

particular where these outputs are public. In such a way it is

conceivable that campaigns will be forced to respond even where

they had no intention of responding when they created the

presence. This would be, in part, an example of a more

technological determinist argument, with the characteristics of the

technology determining its use to some degree. This thesis can also

speak to (by no means definitively) to this wider debate about the

role of technology and its relationship to politics.

Overall, it is hoped that by developing a working typology of local

online campaigns this thesis will provide an opportunity to redress

some of the outstanding questions at the confluence of

comparative, local and online campaign literatures. The end result

of which will be one step closer to understanding the futuredirection of campaigns as the Web continues to grow in both scope

and importance.

Structure of literature review

This review is structured in six parts:

Part one will discuss the development of local level campaigns and

provide some overall context for the research. This will show that

the local level remains a relevant and possibly increasingly relevantlevel of analysis for political campaigns. Drawing on literature from

both comparative and local level accounts of campaigning, the

review will outline how the local level remains relevant to the overall

election, and in particular how the study of the local level offers

significant advantages over national level approaches to the study

of online campaigns.

Part two will outline the conceptualisation of local level campaign

types, using the work of Fisher and Denver (2009) to classify

campaigns as being either traditional or modern. This forms the


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basis for the overall approach to the question of the Webs effect on

local level campaigns, contextualising the study in previous

research.

Part three will then discuss the literature relevant to question one,

the measure of the effect of the Web on campaign mode,

specifically how campaigns are adopting different modes of online

campaigning, be they Web 1.0 or Web 2.0 in nature. It will evaluate

previous attempts to model Web adoption by local level campaigns,

discussing a variety of cases.

Part four will look at the question of the effect of the Web on

campaign style, specifically how the new modes of campaigning are

being used, either to promote dialogue between campaigns and

electors, supporters and workers, or alternatively to pursue amonologue, a single unified message. Using a number of accounts

of online campaigning this section will aim to develop a more

textured understanding of how online campaigns use the Web and

how these differing styles might relate to the kind of campaign,

either traditional or modernised.

Part five will address RQ3, the question of the Webs effect on

campaign organisation in different campaign types. It is here more

than in other areas that the Web may potentially make the biggest

impact on local level campaigning. There is a wealth of literature

both theoretical and empirical that advances arguments about the

Webs effect on campaign organisation. Much of this literature is in

fields other than political campaigning, but it still holds relevant

lessons for local political campaigns. There is evidence to support

both the hypothesised scenarios, that the Web will decentralise

party organisation, or centralise it.

The final section will discuss the wider ramifications of this thesis

and locate the thesis within the context of a wider literature. Firstand foremost this thesis seeks to bring together literatures on local

campaigning and online campaigning, creating a working typology

that links the offline and the online campaign at the local level. This

work also speaks to other question however, most notably those of

the continuing decline or transformation parties and the effect on

party legitimacy, and the question of the Webs inherent political

properties (if any). This section draws on the significant body of

literature that deals with the party decline thesis.


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Why study local level online campaigns?

In the first instance, why is the study of online campaigns at the

local level worthwhile and why is it necessary to know more about

how the Web is layering on top of local level campaigns? There arethree key reasons that make this level of analysis an important topic

both for the study of campaigns in general and the study of online

campaigns in particular: The continued relevance of the local

campaign, the emergence of the post-modern campaign, and the

possibilities of local online campaigns.

The continued relevance of the local level campaign

The post war period is categorised by Norris (2000) as being the era

of the 'modern' political campaign, during which time the nationalparty leadership begins taking a greater hand in planning and co-

ordinating election campaigns. Up until this point the local level had

been largely dominant, but it now begins to take a back seat to

national level machinations (Denver & Hands, 1992, 1997).

The arrival of television in the post-war era further shifts attentions

to the national campaign, with the focus of campaigns now firmly on

leaders in a battle to dominate the nightly news as opposed to local

candidates attempting to connect with individual voters. Attendance

at public meetings, the old staple of local candidates began to

dwindle (Denver & Hands, 1997), and the activities of the local

campaign became relegated to the status of ritual rather than a

meaningful contribution to the overall campaign.

'Since 1959 election campaigns have become evermore

centralised, dominated by national television, focussed on

party leaders, directed by professional experts in public

relations and conditioned by the result of national public

opinion polls'

Denver & Hands, 1997, p16

Contrary to the national centric approach however, research from

1992 onwards that focussed on local level political campaigns in the

UK has shown that the local level often makes a significant

contribution to the overall election result. Denver and Hands

developed a measure of campaign intensity based on survey data

and found a significant positive correlation (.281) between the

combined campaign intensity and the change in turnout between


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1987 and 1992 general elections (Denver & Hands, 1992, p543).

They also looked at the change in vote share and found more mixed

results, with the Conservative Party campaign intensity actually

reducing their change in vote share, this they attribute to a lack of

specific targeting by the Conservatives who tended, they claimed tocampaign strongly everywhere, meaning that in some cases the

Conservatives expended significant amounts of effort in seats they

were destined to lose from the start. Where campaigns were

targeted (in Labour and Lib-Dem campaigns), they identified a

positive correlation, suggesting that campaign intensity did have a

positive impact by as much as two percentage points (Denver &

Hands, 1992).

Further debate ensued over the factors that might account for the

uneven distribution of the effect of campaigning. Pattie andJohnston used campaign spending as a proxy for campaign effort in

their analyses of campaigns. They found that incumbency was a

major factor in predicting the effectiveness of local campaigning,

something refuted by Denver and Hands (Johnston and Pattie,

1997). Despite these controversies within the literature however,

what was clear was that there was a relevant level of analysis

largely ignored by national level approaches to political

campaigning.

Despite the shift in attention, local campaigns never stopped being

relevant to the outcome of elections, and by extension many other

areas as well. From an organisational perspective for instance the

idea of a national campaign is not very meaningful as most party

members, supporters and voters can only engage with any one local

level campaign.

The emergence of the post-modern campaign

There is also good reason to think also that local level campaignsmay also grow in importance. The study of national campaigns has

also begun to pay more attention to the local level.

There are a number of differing accounts of the state of the national

campaign, varying from Americanized (Scammell, 1995), Phase IV

(Farrell & Webb, 2000), Professionalization (Gibson & Rommele,

2009) and Post-Modern (Norris, 2000). To some extent there is

common ground between them, with the idea that campaigning has

become infused with ideas drawn from professional marketing.

Scammel (1995) points to the 1979 Conservative manifesto as an


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example of the influence of marketing ideas on political campaigns,

with market research not just testing the ideas within the manifesto,

but also being used to inform and generate policies. The idea that

the marketers were not only in the room, but also held substantive

sway over policy formation seems to mark a departure, even fromthe centralisation and unification of modern campaigns that

occurred post-war.

Other accounts have focussed instead on concepts of

professionalisation. Gibson and Rommele (2009) for instance

developed an index of campaign methods (CAMPROF) aimed at

measuring just how far the professionalisation of campaigning had

gone.

'Overall the new style of political campaigning has seenparties increasingly compared to business and commercial

entities. Parties exist to make and sell their products, i.e.

policies to an increasingly fickle audience of voters or

consumers'

Gibson and Rommele, 2009, p266

However, the concept of professionalisation has drawn some

criticism, with the term professional being used seemingly to

embrace anyone with a semblance of media management (Lilleker& Negrine, 2002). Arguably however the emergence of a

professional cadre of political marketers at the heart of UK political

campaigns is an observation of note, suggesting that campaigns are

destined to grown organisationally more centralised.

Despite difficulty over establishing a coherent terminology,

agreement has been reached about the techniques that underpin

this new form of campaigning on the ground. In general, it is seen

as a centralisation of campaign organisation, with campaigns relyingon newly available techniques such as direct mail, telephone

canvassing. Techniques which had previously been the mainstay of

the campaign such as television coverage are arguably less

effective today as media markets have fragmented (Norris, 2000).

The unmediated nature of techniques such as direct mail means

that campaigns can bypass this problem, appealing directly to the

voters. Obviously the recent TV debates in the UK show that

mainstream television appearances are still important tools for

campaigning parties, but how long this will remain the case in the

face of pressure from on-demand television is hard to say.


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Despite a strong narrative of nationalised campaigning there are

hints that parties may be in part renewing their focus on local level

campaigning. Norris (2000) argues that parties are increasingly

recognising that the targeted use of resources at the local level

holds advantages for campaigns, allowing them to campaignhardest where it will be of greatest advantage. This realisation

would certainly explain developments such as the Labour Party's

Key Seats Unit that strictly controlled the allocation of resources

prior to the 1997 campaign, cutting off funding for all but the most

vital constituencies (Whitely & Seyd, 2003).

The possibilities of local online campaigns

The local level offers significant advantages to the study of online

campaigning as well. Conceptualising campaigns as being nationalinherently limits the scope and explanatory power of national level

accounts of online campaigns. Accounts such as Coleman (2001)

can only ever be anecdotal as they lack the basis for a meaningful

comparison between cases. Breaking an election into its component

parts offers a far higher number of cases, and therefore offer the

possibility of a cross sectional comparison with other cases located

within the same electoral system. This enables a far more

systematic approach to the study of online campaigning than is

possible at the national level.

The focus on national level has also precluded the possibility of

small-scale change in campaigns as a result of the Web. The

constant search for the internet election has meant that

meaningful changes that occur in specific constituencies and

campaigns are potentially being missed. This is a common problem

with work relating to the Web, many of the original cyber-utopians

(Negroponte, 1995; Rheingold, 1993) predicted such widespread

changes that when they failed to manifest themselves smaller scale

changes could only ever be disappointing. Studying local level

campaigns allows for the possibility that even small changes in how

campaigns organise themselves using the Web may add up to

significant impacts at the local level. It also allows for the

identification of exception cases, the outliers in the sample that may

not be generalizable to the overall population, but hold interesting

lessons for the future of local campaigns in an increasingly online

era.

Finally, the link between local campaign literature in the UK andonline campaigning has not yet been made, and so there is a gap


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that needs to be filled.

Overall, the local level is an appropriate level of analysis for local

campaigns as:

Despite the academic and political focus on national level

campaigning the local level has always remain relevant to the

study of campaigns

There is evidence that national campaign organisations are

becoming increasingly locally focussed in their approach to

campaigning in order to maximise their use of resources

The study of online campaigns provides opportunities for a

more systematic and detailed study of online campaigns, andto make a greater contribution than an alternate nationally

focussed approach

Traditional and modern campaigning

So far this chapter has shown why the local level is a relevant unit

of analysis for the study of online campaigns. This thesis

conceptualises local level campaigns as falling somewhere on two

differing scales of campaigning, traditional and modern, acategorisation that is based on the work of Fisher and Denver

(2009).

A number of approaches to categorising local level campaigning in

the UK have been investigated, mainly as offshoots of earlier work

establishing the importance of the local level campaign and still

very much aimed at explaining variations in effectiveness of the

local level campaign (Fisher et al, 2006; Fisher & Denver, 2008,

2009; Johnston & Pattie, 1995; Denver et al, 2003).

Johnston & Patties (1995) use of spending data as a proxy for

campaign activity is on the face of it a promising approach to

classifying campaigns, but faces difficulty in identifying the source

of money. In cases were candidates are independently rich they

may well be subsidising campaigns out of their own pocket,

campaigns that may attract little or no other sources of funding.

Secondly, there is no clear picture of what money is actually being

spent on. For our purposes it is necessary to look at the campaign

techniques being employed in order to gauge their impact on the e-campaign, but spending data cannot tell us what kinds of


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techniques are being used. Although approximations of the relative

costs of face to face campaigns and marketing orientated

campaigns are known, it is conceivable that a very intensive face to

face campaign may cost as much as a cheaper marketing orientated

campaign.

Fisher et al (2006) study of centralisation as a predictor of vote

share used a measure of campaign centralisation that attempts to

capture the relationship between the local, regional and national

party. They admit that the measure fails to capture a number of

important aspects of centralisation, but this measure remains of

interest from the perspective of e-campaigns. Although the central

contention of this thesis is that online campaigns are influenced by

offline campaign types, the organisation of offline campaigns is

likely to be a factor in that relationship, if not a distinctivecharacteristic of campaign type. Campaign types that rely heavily

on impersonal campaign techniques are at least in theory likely to

have a closer relationship with the central party organisation, given

that centrally administered campaign techniques such as direct mail

require greater co-ordination than where campaigns are working

independently of the central party. The focus however

unquestionably remains on the techniques used by offline

campaigns but there may be scope for incorporating measures of

centralisation either in the measure of offline type, or in the form ofan interaction effect between organisation offline campaign type.

The approach used in this analysis is that of Fisher and Denver

(2009) which consists of twin indices of traditionalism and

modernisation in campaigning measured as follows:

Traditionalism Modernisation

No. of posters distributed per elector Use of computers

No. of leaflets delivered per elector Use of computerised electoral register

% electorate canvassed on the doorstep Used party software

No. Public Meetings Rough level of telephone canvassing

Mean nos of campaign and polling-day workers Used computers for knocking up


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Level of manual activity on polling day (including

delivery of last minute leaflets, knocking up,

proportion of the electorate covered by last minute

number-takers)

Use of direct mail

% electorate canvassed by telephone

Source: Fisher & Denver (2009) p198

Based on these measures they found that local level campaigns in

the UK increasingly fell into the modernised as opposed to the

traditional bracket. In contrast to this however, they found that

traditional campaign techniques were found to be the most effective

in terms of encouraging electors to vote for that party, however, inthe face of declining party memberships modernised campaigns

were increasingly becoming the best the parties had to offer (Fisher

& Denver, 2009)

Overall, it is felt that this approach most closely captures the traits

likely to explain the effect of the Web, providing a mixture of

campaign mode and style as well as campaign organisation in the

measure. Other advantages to this approach include the fact that

this index was constructed using data that is the same as the EAS

data being used in this study, and so can be re-created with a great

deal of fidelity in the analysis. The measures have also been tried

and tested to some extent which further adds to their validity.

The principal drawback of this approach is the inclusion of a number

of variables under the heading of modernisation that relate to

technology, creating a possible co-linearity problem in the analysis.

Campaigns that use computers, may be more likely to develop

online modes of campaigning simply because they have access to

the technology. The inclusion of computer use as a measure ofmodernisation is perhaps symptomatic of an assumption that

technology is always inherently modernising. As counter-intuitive as

it may sound, with the development of Web this may be less likely.

Previously technology has presented itself first in the hands of an

elite, be it television, print, radio, automobiles, they have always

been manifest in a few select campaign before becoming

ubiquitous. Web 2.0, represents not a new technological elite, but

operates by the very fact that it is none-exclusive, cheap and easy

to use. In many ways Web 2.0 is the technological version of thedoorstep campaign, traditional, based on dialogue, and run locally.


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For this reason it is correct to question the inclusion of computer

use in this measure.

However, at no point does the measure include an actual measure

of Web use, and the computer is a diverse tool, one that can still be

used to increase co-ordination with central party organisations as

easily as it can be used to go online. The fact that Fisher and Denver

have concentrated on this kind of computer use (e.g. the use of

party software, computerised voter lists) suggests that they are

capturing something different to and distinct from Web use.

Although careful attention needs to be paid in the final analysis, the

existing index of traditionalism and modernisation probably best

captures different approaches to the local level campaign.

Although it is not perfect, traditionalism and modernisationrepresents the most viable approach for this research to use as a

basis for investigating the effects of the Web. Although it may be

viable to develop a new measure specifically for this thesis, of

separate measures to cover each of the areas investigated. These

would however lack the overall unifying concept of being either

traditional and modern which would risk the conceptual clarity that

these indices provide. For the purposes of this thesis, traditional and

modern are the bedrock on which further analysis is built.

The effect of the Web on campaign mode

Question one deals with the effect of the Web on campaign mode

(meaning the tools and media used by local level campaigns to

reach electors) in different campaign types. This question aims to

show how traditional and modern campaigns can differ in their

approach to online campaign modes by constructing two statistical

model of campaign Web adoption, one for Web 1.0 campaign

modes, the other for Web 2.0.

The Web opens up two new modes of campaigning for local level

campaigns, they can use conventional websites (termed here Web

1.0) of the style familiar to most web users. These sites tend to be a

series of pages hosted on a campaigns own domain, or one supplied

by the local party or in some case the national party. Altering these

sites is difficult without specific knowledge of html, or an expensive

content management system common only in professionally built

sites. These sites tend towards being non-interactive and limiting

the ability of the user to get involved, although here we are


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principally concerned with the mode of campaigning, not the style

(discussed later). The alternative approach is to use one of the

many Web 2.0 platforms that have emerged in the last few years.

These include social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter,

and may also be thought to include services such as Flickr and YouTube. These sites, much like Web 1.0 sites can be used to

display information, but their use is greatly simplified, as they

require little knowledge to use. They are also usually free to use as

well, often funded by adverts, making Web 2.0 a good option for

campaigns that are unable to fund a more expensive Web 1.0 style

site. It should not be forgotten however that while Web 2.0 is free to

use, keeping social networking presences updated still has a

resource cost for campaigns. Every supporter monitoring a

Facebook page for instance is not out on the doorstep.

This is perhaps the key reason why we would expect to see a

different manifestation between traditional and modernised local

campaigns in this instance. Where modernised campaigns are able

to utilise modern modes of campaigning despite the expense they

represent, traditional campaigns are based more around shoe

leather, a more time intensive but often a far cheaper option. There

is an implied difference in resource availability in campaigns that

draws clear connections to Web based modes of campaigning. A

Web 2.0 approach seems far more likely in a traditional campaign,where as a Web 1.0 mode seems more likely in a modernised local

level campaign.

Before these links can be confirmed however, there are a number of

other factors relating to the adoption of the Web that need to be

considered and controlled for in an analysis. A number of empirical

studies have looked at the issue of Web adoption amongst differing

campaigns and found conflicting reports as to what factors are key.

This section outlines these finding and highlights what factors need

to be taken into consideration as part of statistical model.

The existing studies however have not yet been linked to the local

campaigns literature, so the type of local campaign being fought in

the area has yet to be included in any of these models. In addition,

much of the research pre-dates the emergence of Web 2.0 as a

possible campaign mode. Key Web 2.0 services for campaigning

such as Facebook and Twitter, were not viable campaigning options

as recently as 2006 and so the distinction between Web 1.0 and

Web 2.0 is not evident in many of these accounts, suggesting thatthere is need for further work in this area before we can fully


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understand the adoption of new campaign modes by local level

campaigns.

There are three categories of factors that need to be considered in

analysing campaign web adoption, factors related to the

constituency, the campaign and the candidate (Herrnson et al,

2007)

Constituency factors

Constituency factors are the characteristics of any given

constituency, and have included variables that measure the age of

the population, education and affluence. There is an acknowledged

gap in Web use based on demographics, often referred to as the

Digital Divide. The annual Oxford Internet Institute survey confirmsthat disparities are still widespread in the UK. 97% of Households

earning over 40,000 per year report using the Web compared to

only 38% of households earning less than 12,500. Those who

attended higher education report 42% higher web use than those

with only a basic education, and A and B social grade households

report 88% access to the Web whilst only 46% of D and E grade

households have access. Age is also a potent factor, there is a 72%

fall in web use between the youngest and oldest respondents

(Dutton et al, 2009). From a campaigns perspective, there is little

point to an online campaign in constituencies were Web access is

limited. If campaigns take this into account when deciding to

campaign online or not, then we can expect to see factors such as

income, education, and age play a big role in predicting the use of

the web.

Carlson & Djupsund (2001) examined the adoption of websites

during the 1999 Finnish Parliamentary election campaign, using a

similar set of explanatory variables (partisanship, gender, age,

constituency and incumbent status) finding that constituencyfactors were of some relevance in the Finnish case:

'The general tendency is that the use of the Web is slightly

more common in areas of higher development, but there are

some exceptions to be found (e.g. the constituencies of Oulu

and Kuopio). These represent the third kind of area mentioned

above (i.e., a highly developed city with a university). Hence,

we might state that generally candidates' use of the Web is

high all across the country. The differences that are to be

found seem to be linked to the general level of development,


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education and the size and density of the population.'

Carlson & Djupsund, 2001, p76

Herrnson et al (2007) reported similar findings in a large scale study

of US campaigns on a mixture of levels (state-wide). The findingsbear out the assumptions of the digital divide, with constituencies

that feature a higher number of black voters, voters over 55 having

a significant negative effect on the likelihood of candidates

establishing a website. A higher percentage of college educated

electors however increased the likelihood (Herrnson et al, 2007).

Campaign factors

As well as factors related to the constituency, we can also consider

factors related to the campaign such as party affiliation,

competitiveness and incumbency. Claims have been made in the

past that there is an ideological affinity between the Web and some

parties. In the US, the dominance of the right wing blog sphere in

particular has seemed to point towards an ideological effect.

Whether this is down to ideology, or some parties simply being

quicker to adopt new technologies in unclear. We can also consider

the risk involved in taking a campaign online, in particular for

established candidates that are already well embedded in their

seats. Would a veteran incumbent be as quick to go online as achallenger looking to build a public profile?

Findings in this area have also been contradictory. In the 2004

Australian elections Gibson & McAllister (2006) found that party

affiliation had a profound impact on a parties likelihood of going

online, although this effect was seemingly limited to the far right

party. Conversely Herrnson et al (2007) reported very little effect

from party affiliation on web adoption.

There is also a mixed picture surrounding incumbency and political

experience. Two studies included some measure of a campaigns

position in the race (Carlson & Djupsund, 2001; Zittel, 2009). In the

Finnish case, incumbents were more likely to use the Web than

challengers (Carlson & Djupsund, 2001), in the German case

incumbency was not shown to be a factor. This is surprising given

the reputation the Web has accumulated in terms of being an

outsiders medium.

Other studies have included measures of political experienceinstead of measures of incumbency. Herrnson et al (2007) identified


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that the number of years in politics was a significant negative factor

on a campaigns likelihood to establish a campaign website. Gibson

& McAllister (2006) found legislative experience not to be a

significant factor.

We can also look at the closeness of the race, or the likelihood of

victory as being possible determinants of a candidates use of the

Web. Zittel (2009) found the closeness of the race not to be a factor

in the decision to use the Web., whilst Herrnson et al (2007) found a

close race to be far more likely to feature websites. Again the two

cases are in apparent contradiction.

Candidate factors

Finally, we might consider that the digital divide applies tocandidates as much as it does constituencies. Candidates that are

more likely to use the Web in themselves are more likely to

campaign online, i.e. younger, wealthier and better educated

candidates.

Candidate gender has been included in a number of models of web

uptake, in one case it was not found to be factor campaigns (Gibson

& McAllister, 2006), in another it was observed that female

candidates were actually more likely to use the Web, although no

statistical significance was attached to this (Carlson & Djupsend,2001).

A candidates age has been found to have conflicting levels of

significance in models of Web use. Age was included as variable in

both the Finnish and Australian model. In the Australian example a

candidates age was not found to have bearing on the their adoption

of the Web (Gibson & McAllister, 2006). In the Finnish case however,

age was found to be a factor, with a clear cut pattern with regard to

a candidates age and presence on the Web, with youngercandidates more likely to use the Web (Carlson & Djupsund, 2001).

Candidate educational attainment has featured as a variable in the

Gibson & McAllister (2006) model, in that instance it was not shown

to be a relevant factor either for or against the adoption of the Web

(Gibson & McAllister, 2006). In the German case however,

candidates born after 1965 were far more likely to have a personal

website (Zittel, 2009). Only Gibson & McAllister included a

candidates education as variable, where it was not considered to be

significant (Gibson & McAllister, 2006).


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Overall, the picture is one of a complete mixture. There is no

seemingly identifiable pattern between the significance of

constituency, campaign and candidate factors in this data, no one

factor seems to dominate. This is perhaps reflective of the individual

contexts of these studies, all of which come from different locationsand times. A further limitation of this data in the context of this

research is the concentration on Web adoption rather than making a

distinction between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 modes of campaigning.

Although many of the studies do go further than simple web

adoption and attempt to include aspects of online campaign such as

online contacting (this fits in better with campaign style as opposed

to campaign mode) none of the studies really get to the heart of

what modes of online campaigning these campaigns feature.

Web 2.0 adoption

Web 2.0 has been included in one forthcoming study based in the

UK in a limited fashion. Suddelich et al (forthcoming) included

Facebook use (as three separate states, a page, a profile and a

group) in a model of web adoption based on the 2010 UK general

election. Suddelich et al were specifically interested in a me too

effect, that is the likelihood of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 adoption when

campaigns in the same constituency were using similar tools. They

noted that party affiliation was a significant determinant of web use(both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0). As well as this they found that

campaigns considered the front runner in the area were more likely

to develop a web page, but not a Facebook page. The difference in

the adoption of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 tools they ultimately attribute

to resource costs, with Facebook pages (Web 2.0) being completely

free and websites requiring investment, and therefore only open to

campaigns that have access to significant resources.

Despite the exclusion of other Web 2.0 platforms, most notably

Twitter from the analysis, and an acknowledged issue with data

collection this study represents the first glimpse of a statistical

model of Web adoption that includes Web 2.0.

Conclusion

Where this thesis can innovate is not only by including a separate

measure of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, but by also including measures of

traditional and modern campaigning in the analysis, something

which has not been done to date.

As part of developing a fuller understanding of how the Web is


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manifest at the local level, RQ1 sets out to build on this body of

work and create a statistical model of Web adoption as a whole, and

two further analyses of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 adoption, all of which

include offline campaign type as conceptualised by Fisher & Denver

(2009) as an explanatory variable. These models will be able toexplain how the adoption of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 modes of

campaign differs (or remains the same) in different offline contexts.

In other words what kind of campaign modes are used in different

contexts. Should offline campaign type be shown to be significant,

this will support the hypothesis that the effect of the Web on local

campaigns will vary depending on what kind of campaign it is, either

traditional or modern.

This is one part of the wider explanation of the effects of Web use

on local campaigns, in different circumstances. This research willthen go on to look at how the Web is affecting campaign style, and

campaign organisation in traditional and modern campaigns in the

next two sections, before showing how this study speaks to wider

questions about political parties and the use of technology in politics

in the final sections.

The effect of the Web on campaign style

RQ2 aims to create a similar statistical model as in RQ1, however,

the outcome variable in this instance is that of campaign style

rather than campaign mode. This question is not concerned with

what tools campaigns are using in their online campaigns, but more

how they are using them.

This distinction is required as although Web 1.0 and 2.0 modes of

campaigning are nominally information providing and interactive

respectively, this is an assumption that needs to be verified. A Web

1.0 site may, through the inclusion of functions such as a discussionforum or a feedback section, be interactive, while a Web 2.0 site

may be run only as a tool for information provision by shutting down

interactive functions, or simply not responding to user contributions.

The possibility for variation in the use of online campaign modes

highlights the need to go beyond a simplistic conception of Web 1.0

and Web 2.0 modes as being sufficient to identify specific campaign

styles. For a more in depth understanding it is necessary to break

down e-campaigns into their component parts and examine how the

Web is being used.


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In the wider context, campaign style is the second area in which the

Web may affect local level campaigns examined in this research. As

well as offering new services, the emergence of Web 2.0 has offered

new styles of campaigning, which may theoretically increase

electors involvement with campaings, enabling electors andcampaigns to interact online as well as on the doorstep.

Alternatively, the Web can also be seen as a continuation of

modernised campaigns styles orientated towards specifically

targeted provision of information as opposed to interaction. Testing

the hypothesis that campaign type will influence the style of the

online campaign will enable us to populate another area of the

typology, further adding to our understanding of online campaigns

at the local level.

In answering this question we can conceptualise online campaignstyle as being either information provision or interaction. Using this

as an outcome variable, it will be possible to test the same factors

as in RQ1, but this time with a much more textured understanding

of Web use (but with a far reduced sample size). The resulting

model will allow any links between campaign type and campaign

style to be drawn out as well as any other characteristics that prove

to be a factor. The data to develop this measure of information

provision and interactivity comes from researcher observation of

campaigns in the North West of England over the course of the 2010UK General Election.

Based on the overall argument that offline and online campaigns

are linked, we can hypothesise that traditional campaigns will have

be more interactive in style, whilst modernised campaigns will be

more likely to adopt information provision styles.

Conceptualising online campaign styles

At a basic level, the Web allows for two processes, receiving andsending information or downloading and uploading. Political

campaigning online is no exception, with campaigns able to either

use the medium to send information to electors, or they can in turn

accept information from electors, and if they choose to reply by

sending further information, this becomes a dialogue, campaigns

and electors have the ability to interact online. This basic

interpretation of the Web remains solid in the face of much of the

technical innovation that has taken place over the last decade.

Gibson et al (2003) conceptualised the difference between styles as


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being that of information provision compared to participation. The

term participation is problematic in this sense as it raises questions

around what it means to participate politically online. This is not the

subject of this research, and including participation as a measure

would undoubtedly complicate the issues in question. In order toavoid this the heading participation is re-termed here to interaction,

but the basic behaviours remain largely the same.

Information Provision Participation (Interaction)

Party history

Organisation structure

Programme/policies

Media/Press room

Biographies

Calendar of events

FAQ

Specialist group pages

Leader focus

Downloading screensaver

Search engines

Games

Online shopping

Email contacts

Opinion polls

E-postcards

Donate/volunteer

Chat rooms

Q&A session

Source: Gibson, Ward & Lusoli, 2003, p169

In the left hand column are the things we would normally associate

with political campaign material, both offline and on, including

information about the candidate, the party, party leaders and policy.

The right hand column contains the more interactive elementspossible online, most notably chat rooms and Q&A sessions.

Although since 2003 there are a number of other activities that

could be added, at the essential level these activities remain the

same, the uploading and downloading of information.

Campaign style in Web 1.0

Based on this conception of online campaign styles, it is possible to

see two distinct trends in online campaigning. The earliest Web

campaigns concentrated heavily on information provision, withinteractivity largely absent from candidates campaigns (Coleman,


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2001). This lack of interactivity in campaigns is not exclusive to the

UK, with work from Germany (Schweitzer, 2005) and the US

(Druckman et al, 2007) highlighting candidates preferences for

none-interactive e-campaigns.

Contrary to this a study of national campaign websites in 2000 by

Norris found that there were a large number of possible

communication activities available online, and certainly enough for

Norris to argue:

'Moreover, these websites are not simply 'top-down' channels

of information or party propaganda, instead, contrary to the

American studies, in Europe they also facilitate 'bottom-up'

communication from citizens to parties and elected officials.'

(Norris, 2003, p43)

However, it should be clear here that Norris was dealing with

national level websites, often ones that have a good deal more

resources expended on them than local level campaign sites.

Studies of local sites in the UK during the 2001 election campaign

revealed that only 8% of sites contain any level of interaction

beyond that of a simple e-mail address (Gibson & Ward 2003,

p198). Local sites were found to vary little in their contact,containing a largely standardised menu of items including candidate

biographies, standard policy lines, appeals for volunteers, news

items and links to the national party (Gibson & Ward, 2003)

There are perhaps good reasons for campaigns to avoid where

possible interacting online. Stromer-Galley (2001) observed that

there were distinct disadvantages for political figures seeking to

campaign online. Namely that it was burdensome, represented a

loss of control over their online realm, and finally that it could

possibly result in a loss of ambiguity. Stromer-Galley proceeds to

argue that campaigns are in large part built on a cloak of ambiguity

that limit the discussion of difficult or controversial issues in order to

maintain support. She argues that online interaction threatens this

for candidates, where they can be forced to reveal information,

policies or opinions, that may prove to be unpopular. Coupled with

the time it takes to engage online, and the ever-present danger that

interactive features may be hijacked or defaced, interactive

campaign styles seem like a poor choice for political campaigns.

As a result for much of their existence, online campaigns,


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particularly at the local level have been little more than the

extension of campaign leaflets, leading Ward to brand campaign

websites as brochure-ware. If we accept Stromer-Galleys

argument that campaigns want to avoid interactivity then it is easy

to see why online campaigns have focussed so heavily oninformation provision compared to interaction. However, as

discussed before, the Web is not a static system, it is constantly

changing and developing. Most notably, the emergence of Web 2.0

as an idea has qualitatively changed the Web, and arguably is going

to have an effect on campaign style also.

Campaign style in Web 2.0

This chapter has already discussed Web 2.0 in terms of campaign

mode, that there have been a series of new services available topolitical campaigns in 2010 that were not available in 2005. These

services are distinct as they are based on what OReily (2005) terms

the architecture of participation that is, they are built by the user

rather than the developer. Whereas in Web 1.0 interaction of any

kind required technical ability and specialist knowledge that was

either time-consuming to learn or expensive to buy, the Web 2.0

paradigm is that interaction is built into the Web at a core level.

Campaigns with a Facebook profile for instance will automatically be

able to host forum discussions, accept public comments on postedmaterials and send messages. Further more, the explosive spread of

this technology has created an electorate which to some extent

expects to be able to engage with campaigns the way they engage

with one another and increasingly other services as well. The logic

of Stromer-Galleys argument remains solid, campaigns have more

to lose by developing interactive styles of campaigning, but

arguably the cheapness and ubiquity of these new styles, coupled

with their popularity and theoretical potential will likely persuade

some campaigns to test the waters.

Investigation of Web 2.0 is in its infancy, which is one of the reasons

that makes this a worthwhile subject for research. There is a body of

anecdotal evidence that suggests that on a national level

interactivity may become more important in online campaigns. The

2008 Obama campaigning in particular has been seen as totemic for

interactivity in online campaigning, and has also been seen as

influential over other campaigns, in particular the UK Conservative

party drew inspiration from Obama before the 2010 campaigns,

something that can be seen in the similarities between theirrespective online campaign platforms MyBO and MyConservatives


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(Crabtree, 2010).

How important an interactive style was to the Obama campaign is

open to discussion however. Lilleker & Jackson (forthcoming)

maintain that:

The key element is not the mobilisation of activists, but that

he encouraged participation in the form of sharing and acting

as an advocate online through providing feedback to the

campaigning.

Lilleker & Jackson, forthcoming, p2

Arguably however, the key area of innovation in the Obama

campaign was not in style, but organisation, with the fund raising

capabilities of the Web being harnessed obviously very effectively,

but then the results being ploughed into conventional campaign

methods, most notably TV advertising. Not only an offline campaign

technique, but a notably modernised one, squarely in the

information provision column and not part of some new

commitment to interactive campaign styles.

Lessons from earlier US campaigns certainly seem to suggest that

where the Web has had the greatest effect in US campaigns is in the

back office. Hindman maintains that the real effect of the Web inthe 2004 Dean primary campaign, the previous peak of Web

campaigning was not in the website itself which he dismisses as

preaching to the converted, but in organising existing supporters

(Hindman, 2009).

Empirically, there are a number of studies that have looked at the

style of online campaigns with specific reference to Web 2.0. Most

notably, from a political communication perspective, Jackson and

Lilleker have developed a framework for measuring interaction

online which is extremely detailed, based on a thirty point scale,

with 1 representing a closed off monologue with low receiver

control, to 30 which represents a public discussion (Jackson &

Lilleker, 2009). They used this framework to investigate the

interactivity present in online political websites and profiles on

social networks in November 2007, concluding that:

Political parties still seek to a significant extent to control

their communication process and to inform rather than

interact. As a result, in only a limited number of social mediasites can we identify politicians joining in with these new


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interactive communities; rather the conditioning of the

Westminster community, where a more Burkean, top-down

communication strategy prevails, seems to dominate

behaviour.

Jackson & Lilleker, 2009 p247

Other contexts have revealed a similarly mixed response to Web

2.0, with seemingly little disruption in Korea (Lee, 2009) and Norway

(Kalnes, 2009). So it is decidedly unclear as to whether or not the

theoretical potential of Web 2.0 is translating into new campaign

styles.

There is however an important difference between the research

outlined above and this thesis, the unit of analysis. The abovestudies have considered Web 2.0 in round, national terms as

opposed to looking at its effect on individual candidates. In practice

however this is where we may see the greatest impact, with the

interactive style described here being a direct parallel in some

respects of the traditional UK campaign, fought on the doorstep and

face to face with voters. If local campaigns are exploiting this link to

embrace new campaign styles has yet to be seen. Certainly the

2010 election represents the first chance to examine this in the UK.

Conclusion

This section has developed an understanding of online campaign

style as being distinct from the campaign mode. Using Gibson et als

distinction between information provision and participatory online

behaviours (re-termed here as interactive) we can show that online

campaigns thus far have concentrated on information provision as

opposed to offering interaction. Many campaign sites are considered

to be little more than brochures or online campaign materials, with

candidates avoiding interaction out of a fear of the ramifications.The emergence of Web 2.0 however has provided new capabilities

and new opportunities that may alter campaign styles, possibly

allowing them to become more interactive. Although preliminary

studies in the UK have so far not shown this to be the case,

anecdotal evidences suggests that more interactive styles may have

been deployed at the 2010 UK General Election in part inspired by

the US example.

With this classification in mind, it is possible to add a second

dimension to our understanding of local level online campaigns,

going a step beyond the nature of the tools used by campaigns


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considered in RQ1, to look at how these tools were used, either

interactively, or for information provision. As with campaign mode, it

is expected that information provision behaviours are likely to be

associated more strongly with modernised campaigns, whilst

traditional campaigns are likely to be more interactive, using theWeb to engage with electors, supporters and workers in dialogue

rather than monologue.

The effect of the Web on campaign

organisation

The previous two questions have considered the tools that local

level campaigns use and how they use them and they have

developed an understanding of these areas based on an existing

approach to local level campaigns, traditional and modern. The final

area considered by this thesis is that of campaign organisation.

RQ3 aims to evaluate the impact of the Web on campaign

organisation at the local level, through a series of in depth case

studies located in different campaign archetypes uncovered in RQ1

and RQ2. These case studies will consider campaign organisation,

and attempt to isolate the effect of the Web in this particular

context.

As well as being the final area considered, local level campaign

organisation is potentially the most transformative. Campaign mode

and style are interesting phenomena in of themselves, but an effect

on campaign style would speak to broader questions about the use

of the Web in local campaigns, specifically the expected

consequences of the Web for the overall position of parties in the

UK, their relationship with members and supporters, and in the final

analysis their legitimacy as political organisations in the face of

social and political change.

The selection of case studies will be based in large part on the

results of RQ1 and RQ2. The factors found to be relevant in the

adoption of the Web and in determining how it is used are also likely

to provide a valid starting point for its effect on campaign

organisation. Selected studies will then be investigated through a

series of semi-structured interviews with candidates, agents,

workers and supporters, designed to provide a systematic approach

to considering the question of campaign organisation.


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The existing literature on campaign organisation reports two

possible scenarios for the impact of the Web on campaign

organisation, termed here centralising and de-centralising. They

could also be viewed as optimistic or pessimistic, but to do so

introduces a normative dimension to the conceptualisation that isbest avoided if this is to be rigorous research. Much of the research

is not specific to local level campaigns, focusing instead on either

organisation of political groups (not necessarily parties) and in some

cases specifically on party activities.

Decentralising

Much has been made of supposedly in-built tendency in the Web

(and the Internet at large) to be orientated toward networked

formed of organisation as opposed to traditional hierarchicalmodels. The concept of a network is remarkably simple, meaning

simply two points connected by a link, with no specification what

that link should be, or what those points should represent (Kahler,

2009). As Kahler goes on to point out, networks are indeed

ubiquitous, even in hierarchical organisations. An army for instance,

an extremely hierarchical organisation can be expressed in network

form.

So more than simply creating networks, the Web can be seen as

creating flatter networks. In his original memo detailing the

information storage system that would eventually become the Web,

Berners-Lee expressed his desire to avoid a hierarchical tree system

for storing information, preferring instead to create a system where

all information could be connected to all other information though

hyperlinks, reducing the need to know where information was stored

before it could be retrieved (Berners-Lee, 1989).

A concept as ubiquitous as a network is not limited to the Web, or

pre dependent on it. Toffler provided one of the clearest examplesof networked organisation (and its potential advantages) in his

description of a production line in a steel mill. In a hierarchical

system, a breakdown of machinery would require the production

workers to notify a manager, who in turn would notify the manager

of the maintenance staff, who would only then notify the

maintenance team. In a networked system, production and

maintenance staff would be able to notify one another directly, in

theory at least flattening the organisation by allowing

communication between two branches that would have beenseparate in a hierarchy (Toffler, 1970).


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Despite its independence of the Web, several writers have seen the

increased availability of communication of the Web as being linked

with networked organisation forms. For Castells, the new availability

of information contributes to a fundamental re-ordering of the fabric

of society, creating what he describes as a new economy that isinformational, global and networked (Castells, 1996). For others too,

networked organisational forms represent a distinct remoulding of

the economy, allowing actors to behave more independently and

achieve more without the aid of hierarchical structures that

characterised the industrial age (Benkler, 2006).

So how do new organisational forms translate to politics? On a

general level there have been a number of studies that have

examined none party based, but certainly political activities to draw

out cases in which organisation has been based on decentralised,sometimes trans-national networks. These range from groups such

as diverse as Mexican revolutionaries (Cleaver, 1998), anti-war

groups (Gillan & Pickerill, XXXX), anti-globalisation protests (Khan &

Kellner, 2004) and citizens of Los Angeles concerned about changes

to the telephone system (Lin & Dutton, 2003). Although none of

these groups is even remotely close to a political party in as we

understand them, it is worth taking note of the widespread nature of

networked organisation. Chadwick (2007), in discussing MoveOn, a

US campaign group closely associated with the Democratic party,goes so far as to suggest a concept of Organisational Hybridity,

arguing that MoveOn represents a campaign group in between

elections, but during elections it shifts into the campaigning wing of

the democratic party. So while campaign organisations and parties

should not be confused, it might be relevant in terms of parties

taking note of and attempting to replicate these successes.

There has been some work on what theoretical conceptions of what

a more networked party organisation might look like, although it is

again important to keep in mind that this refers to the party as a

whole and not the campaign. Foremost, Margetts theorised that a

number of factors would drive parties towards a more online model,

including an acknowledged reluctance to join party organisations,

the growth of single issue groups and the increasing prevalence of

the Net. Suggesting that:

An alternative response might be another ideal type of

political party, with its origins in developments in the media

and information and communication technologies, particularlythe Internet, combined with new trends in political


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participation and the de-institutionalisation of political parties:

the cyber party.

(Margetts, 2001, p8)

As part of this new type, Margetts envisaged a changing role forparty members, with organisations becoming less formal and less

rigid, with a greater role for supporters in candidate selection and

policy formation. The party was seen as potentially a more catholic

organisation, with a wide variety of factional interests unified by a

single front and, an interactive Web platform. Key in this analysis is

the role of party membership, moving from the formal, to a grey

status, where formal designations were less important and access to

networks was more so. Margettes was clear in pointing out that the

cyber party was an ideal type of party, and that no party will everbe entirely cyber. But this is an interesting theoretical benchmark

from which to proceed.

Other conceptions of the effect of the Web on party organisation

have concentrated to a far greater extent on what has come before.

Lofgren and Smith (2003) identified differing ICT (Information

Communication Technology) strategies based on existing party

organisational type, linking conceptions such as the mass party

(Duverger, 1954) Cartel (Katz & Mair, 1995) Consumerist (roughly

analogous to the catch-all or electoral professional model)

(Kircheimer, XXXX; Panebianco, 1988) and finally a grassroots

strategy which is describes the most decentralised campaigns. As

with Margettes, Lofgren and Smith paint a picture of a grassroots

online party as being discursive and informal.

Applying these concepts to campaign organisation, requires a

consideration of how the organisational properties of the party

trickle down to the specific area of campaigning. There is little

research in this area to provide a guide, so we must exercisecaution in transposing these concepts to the campaign, but it is not

difficult to imagine a decentralised campaign as one that is less

formal and allows greater factionalism, dissent and discussion

amongst its participants, be they formal party members, or more

likely it seems informal supporters.

We can also view Web 2.0 as further supporting these arguments

that the Web will affect local campaign organisation by making it

more decentralised. Based on a view of Web 2.0 that views new

technologies and services, rather than adding new capability to the


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Web, simplifying it for the masses, then we can view all of these

arguments as being accelerated by the advent of Web 2.0 as more

and more users are able to join the cyber party

Centralisation

There does exist however a counter argument, that says the Web

will not drive decentralisation, but instead support further

centralisation of political organisation and by extension campaigns.

Going back to the early theorists, many included in their accounts

warnings about the possibilities for increase surveillance that

accompanied the Web. A favoured concept was that of the

panopticon, a structure in which the participant is never sure

whether or not they are being observed common in prisons

(Rheingold, 1993).

The predictions do serve to highlight the premise that the two-way

flow of information online, whilst enhancing the information

available for the elector, also gives the party unprecedented access

to electors. The stratification of society using marketing techniques

was a big feature of the modernisation of campaigning (Norris,

2000, Gibson & Rommele, 2003). This is certainly the role envisaged

by Lofgren & Smith (2003) when they envisaged the consumerist

strategy in which parties would use the Web in order to intercept

and adopt the positions they felt the electorate wanted them to, in

effect an ultra-effective catch-all political party.

There is also an associated false consciousness argument with the

use of the Web. Street (1997) argued that the kind of democracy

offered by the Web was particularly limited as it reduced

involvement, relegating decision making to push button ranking of

preferences. Rheingold (1993) also warned that the online realm

could simply become a substitute for meaningful political

participation. This does raise the question, how seriously do partiestake the Web? Especially considering the rhetoric associated Web

2.0. It is perfectly possible that parties will adopt the appearance of

networked organisation, using interactivity as lure, but the not

engage in open dialogue. In any investigation into campaign

organisation care must be taken to ensure that any decentralised

tendencies are not simply just a straw man, created by parties with

the intention of talking the talk, but reluctant to walk the walk.

There is perhaps as good a reason to see the Web as a possible

force for centralisation as for decentralisation. It is not beyond the


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realm of possibility that the networked party will, far from being

discursive and open, be in fact be hierarchical, with the central

party having access to ever greater amounts of information, and

able to use the ease of communication to co-ordinate and control

supporters, members and candidates.

Empirical approaches

In terms of empirical evidence, there is no conclusive evidence that

either of these scenarios is occurring. Although there has been little

to suggest that any parties have experienced the kind of radical

decentralisation thought possible, neither have any parties

seemingly become a cyber dictatorship either.

Gibson and Ward (1999) examined the effect of the Web on partyorganisation in the UK, through a series of mail and email surveys.

Mainly the study focussed on the effects of internal computer

communication systems (ICCS), which, although they arguably differ

from the Web, represent the form of internal communication that

replicates much of the functionality of the Web. They found that

overall parties were not using ICCS for communication or feedback,

but instead viewed in utilitarian and strategic terms (Gibson &

Ward, 1999, p351). In other words, these were not tools for debate

or dissent, principally they were there to disseminate information.

Pederson and Saglie (2005) found that in Danish and Norwegian

parties, the use of technology overwhelmingly favoured the party

elites as opposed to the rank and file, with few members accessing

the party website on a regular basis, receiving emails from the

central party office, and sending emails to other party members.

When asked to rank the importance of the Internet as a source of

information, Norwegian party members and delegates both strongly

favoured more traditional forms of information, most notably TV,

radio and the newspapers (Pederson & Saglie, 2005)

A survey of Liberal Democrat members use of information

communication technology (ICTs) found limited reason to expect

further developments in party organisation, with ICTs (Ward et al,

2002). Although ICTs were playing a limited role in increasing

member activism, they speculated that this was masking a larger

increase in low level activism.

A further survey of party activists in Labour and the Lib Dems

reported in 2004 that:


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Rather than parties being swept aside by a technological

revolution they are likely to adapt and incorporate

technologies to reflect their pre-existing characteristics and

goals. Hence, our survey indicating very modest participatory

boosts from technologies is, in part a reflection of the cautiousways in which mainstream UK parties have used the

technology

Lusoli & Ward, 2004, p467

This last argument in particular makes strong claims that the

organisation effect of the Web will be in large part whatever the

parties want it to be. Despite the potentially disruptive effects of the

Web on campaign organisation, the successful exploitation of

networks by other political groups, party organisation will ultimatelyhave the final say over how they are organised. From the

perspective of the typology of local campaigns, then it seems very

appropriate to link campaign organisation to the existing

organisational trope the campaign fits into, in the case of this

research this is traditionalism and modernisation.

Again, the literature falls short on two accounts in the context of this

question. The level of analysis is national level party organisation,

not local level and not campaigns. The above research speaks more

to the organisational affect of the Web over the totality of the party

remit as opposed to the single are of local level campaigns.

Secondly, the above studies all predate the emergence of Web 2.0

in 2005, which arguably holds a great deal of potential for altering

organisational forms, a key development that is not captured by

current knowledge.

Conclusions

RQ3 aims to complete the typology outlined in the introduction ofthis document by investigating the effect of the Web on the

organisation of local campaigns, in both traditional and modernised

campaigns. As with campaign mode and campaign style, the central

argument is that the effect of the Web on campaign organisation

will be dicta

lit review dec 10 final

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