strong policy views. Whilst useful as enthusiastic canvassers or
lickers of envelopes, such militants may be, from the professional’s
point of view, a source of internal conflict and resistance to the
perhaps inevitable compromises of democratic politics. They may
serve, however, from time to time, to inject an element of idealism
and dynamic change into political systems.
‘Spin’ and political marketing
In the United States the differences between parties have long been
less marked than in Europe, and the system of primary elections for
major party nominations encourages candidates to sell themselves as
individuals rather than as party ideological standard bearers. It is not
surprising that, in the home of capitalism, the use of techniques from
commercial marketing and public relations should have been
pioneered in politics. These techniques have now crossed the Atlantic
with Britain’s Labour Party ‘re-branding’ itself as ‘New Labour’, and
even the redoubtable former Conservative Prime Minister Mrs
Thatcher consulted image consultants on how to dress and speak.
More recently, the Conservative Party leader David Cameron has
also been clearly trying actively to ‘woo’ key support by using
marketing techniques.
New Labour, in opposition, imported US techniques of ‘rapid
rebuttal’. This involved management of the press and TV using a
high-speed high-technology database of previous statements by
both sides – ‘Excalibur’. Rapid rebuttal means responding to your
opponents’ press releases/speeches/stunts, etc., in time to make the
same press or broadcasting deadline so that you share the column
inches or broadcasting time with them.
Some of the young advisers who helped Peter Mandelson to
perfect the party organisation at Millbank Tower prior to victory in
1997 joined the new government as special advisers, and Alistair
Campbell, a former tabloid newspaper political editor, was placed in
charge of the prime minister’s public relations efforts. New Labour
MPs were given sessions advising them on how to project the right
image in the television studio, and mobile telephones to which text
messages containing the latest party line were transmitted. At times,
the lines of demarcation between the activities of (civil servant)
DEMOCRACY 193