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Social Science Media Studies

Political Marketing in Canada

edited by Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson & Jennifer Lees-Marshment

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2012
Category
Media Studies, Political Parties, Elections
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774822282
    Publish Date
    Jan 2012
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774822299
    Publish Date
    Jul 2012
    List Price
    $32.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774822305
    Publish Date
    Jan 2012
    List Price
    $32.95

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Description

Political parties worldwide are using marketing tools such as targeting and segmentation to win elections. Are these strategies making politicians and governments more responsive to voters’ needs, or do they pose a threat to democracy? Political Marketing in Canada, the first book to ask this question of Canada, considers the consequences of political marketing in the realms of public policy, leadership, and the government-citizen relationship. Through dynamic case studies that range from the resurrection of the Conservative Party, to media accounts of political marketing, to Tim Hortons as a political brand, the authors trace how political marketing is transforming the old system of brokerage politics into a new, distinctly Canadian model. Citizens are now viewed as consumers, and platforms and promises have been repackaged as products. Whether this trend is positive or negative, the authors argue, depends on how politicians and governments carry out political marketing – and its promises – in practice.

About the authors

Alex Marland (Political Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland) was a public servant in the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador from 2003 to 2006. He coedited First Among Unequals: The Premier, Politics, and Policy in Newfoundland and Labrador and coauthored the textbook Inside Canadian Politics. His book Brand Command: Canadian Politics and Democracy in the Age of Message Control won the Donner Prize for best public policy book by a Canadian and the Atlantic Book Award for scholarly writing.

Alex Marland's profile page

Thierry Giasson's profile page

Jennifer Lees-Marshment's profile page

Awards

  • Commended, The Hill Times List of Top 100 Best Books for 2012
  • Commended, The Hill Times Editors' 25 Pick of Best Books for 2012

Editorial Reviews

The book is a collection of sophisticated, learned research into the nuts and bolts of modern campaigning, aspects too often ignored in Canadian political science, which tends to view politics through the loftier prisms of history, ideology or procedure. The editors and contributors to this volume force us to confront the reality that modern Canadian politics is as much about commercial marketing principles as it is about any of the other more intellectual and less pragmatic views of what drives our political world.

The Literary Review of Canada, July 2012