New Perspectives on Negative Campaigning: Why Attack Politics Matters

by Dr Alessandro Nai (Editor), Annemarie Walter (Editor)

Overview

Have you ever seen a politician fiercely attacking his opponent? Sure you have. Election campaigns without attacks on the rival candidate's performance, policy propositions and traits simply do not exist. Negative campaigning makes up a substantial part of election campaigns around the world. Though heavily covered in election news, the practice is strongly disliked by political pundits, journalists and voters. Some are even concerned that negative campaigning damages democracy itself. Negative campaigning has inspired numerous scholars in recent decades. But much of the existing research examines the phenomenon only in the United States, and scholars disagree on how the practice should be defined and measured, which has resulted in open-ended conclusions about its causes and effects. This unique volume presents for the first time work examining negative campaigning in the US, Europe and beyond. It presents systematic literature overviews and new work that touches upon three fundamental questions: What is negative campaigning and can we measure it? What causes negative campaigning? And what are its effects?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785521287
Publisher:	ECPR Press
Publication date:	10/01/2015
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Alessandro Nai is Lecturer in empirical methods at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). His work deals with citizens' behaviour in referenda and elections, political psychology, and campaigning effects. He is currently co-directing a three-year SNSF research project (2012-2015) on negative campaigning in Switzerland, with a special focus on its causes and effects. He has been a visiting fellow at the Rutgers University, USA (2008-2009) and at the University of Sydney, Australia (2014). Recent journal articles include ‘What really matters is which camp goes dirty: differential effects of negative campaigning on turnout during Swiss federal ballots’ (European Journal of Political Research, 2013) and ‘The Cadillac, the mother-in-law, and the ballot: individual and contextual roots of ambivalence in Swiss direct democracy’ (Electoral Studies, 2014). Annemarie Walter is a Marie Curie Fellow in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. She received her PhD in 2012 from the University of Amsterdam. Prior to that she was an Assistant Professor in the Communication Science Department at VU Amsterdam. Dr Walter is currently working on a three-year Marie Curie/ NRF research project (2014-2017) entitled CSNCC: Comparative Study of Negative Campaigning and its Consequences. She has published numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Political Studies, Party Politics, Acta Politica and the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics.

Table of Contents

Contents Abbreviations ix List of Figures and Tables xiii Contributors xix Preface and Acknowledgements xxv Chapter One – The War of Words: The Art of Negative Campaigning 1 Alessandro Nai and Annemarie S. Walter PART ONE: DEFINING AND MEASURING NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING Chapter Two – Functional Theory: Negative Campaigning in Political Television Spots 35 William Benoit Chapter Three – What is Negative about Negative Advertisements? 47 Barbara Allen and Daniel Stevens Chapter Four – Comparing Measures of Campaign Negativity: Expert Judgements, Manifestos, Debates, and Advertisements 63 François Gélineau and André Blais Chapter Five – Attack, Support, and Coalitions in a Multiparty System: Understanding Negative Campaigning in a Country with a Coalition Government 75 Wouter de Nooy and Jan Kleinnijenhuis PART TWO: THE CAUSES OF NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING Chapter Six – Explaining the Use of Attack Behaviour in the Electoral Battlefield: A Literature Overview 97 Annemarie S. Walter and Alessandro Nai Chapter Seven – Negative Campaigning in Proportional Representation (Yet Non-Coalition) Systems: Evidence from Switzerland 115 Damien Bol and Marian Bohl Chapter Eight – Do Female Candidates Feel Compelled to Meet Sex-Role Expectations or Are They as Tough as Men? A Content Analysis on the Gender-Specific Use of Attacks in German Televised Debates 129 Jürgen Maier Chapter Nine – Going Negative in Direct-Democratic Campaigns 147 Laurent Bernhard Chapter Ten – When Do Parties Attack their Competitors? Negative Campaigning in Austria, 2002–08 165 Martin Dolezal, Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik and Wolfgang C. Müller Chapter Eleven – The Strategy of Electoral Spots in Brazilian Presidential Campaign: The Decision on When and Where to Broadcast an Attack 183 Felipe Borba Chapter Twelve – Understanding Negativity Within and Among Different Levels of Governments: Evidence from Turkey 201 Emre Toros Chapter Thirteen – An OCEAN of Negativity: An Experimental Assessment on Personality Traits and the Chances to ‘Go Dirty’ in Debates on Political Issues 217 Alessandro Nai, Valentina Holecz, Mario Marchesini, Adrien Petitpas and Ben Sanogo-Willers PART THREE: THE EFFECTS OF NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING Chapter Fourteen – How Negative Campaigning Impinges on the Political Game: A Literature Overview 235 Alessandro Nai and Annemarie S. Walter Chapter Fifteen – The Effects of Advertising Tone on Information Processing and Vote Choice 249 Richard R. Lau and David P. Redlawsk Chapter Sixteen – How the News Media Amplify Negative Messages 267 Travis N. Ridout and Annemarie S. Walter Chapter Seventeen – When Do Attacks Work? Moderated Effects on Voters’ Candidate Evaluation in a Televised Debate 287 Wouter de Nooy and Jürgen Maier Chapter Eighteen – Feeding the Negative? Referendum Votes in Ireland 307 Theresa Reidy and Jane Suiter Chapter Nineteen – Where to Go From Here in the Study of Negative Campaigning: The Comparative Challenge Ahead 327 Annemarie S. Walter and Alessandro Nai Bibliography 335 Index 385

Editorial Reviews

'The study of negative campaigning has mostly been about American elections. Refreshingly, the essays in this book look at what happens in other countries. By so doing, they truly offer new perspectives and thus advance our understanding of attack politics. Recommended to anyone interested in elections and campaigns.'
John G Geer, Vanderbilt University

'Negative campaigning, where politicians attack rivals, is a ubiquitous phenomenon, such as Trump belittling his Republican Party adversaries. Mud-slinging in the US is widely blamed for polarising party politics and demobilising citizens, yet the use of this strategy elsewhere, and its full consequences, remain unclear. In this first-rate new volume, Nai and Walter present fresh evidence from international experts covering a wide range of countries and contexts to examine how negative campaigning is best measured, what explains the adoption of this communications strategy, and what effects flow from this practice. This fascinating and accessible book provides a milestone in comparative communications research, settling the US case in comparative perspective.'
Pippa Norris, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

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