Do the Strategists Know Something We Don't Know? Campaign Decisions in American Elections

Abstract

Political consultants believe that strategic decisions made by candidates in the midst of campaigns help determine election outcomes. Political scientists have traditionally been skeptical of these claims. Indeed, we have produced little evidence that consultant decisions, other than routine actions driven by obvious electoral circumstances, affect outcomes. Despite an increasing overlap between the interests of practitioners and scholars, current research limits the potential for ideas to travel between them. The result is that claims made by consultants about the effects of myriad decisions regarding advertising, public relations strategies, mobilization, and responses to opposition messages remain largely unassessed. Likewise, the practitioner focus on the importance of campaign messages is not central to scholarship. To make academic literature speak to the concerns of practitioners, scholars need to combine their work on the contextual determinants of campaign strategy with their knowledge of the multiple factors that influence voter decision-making.

Recommended Citation

Grossmann, Matt (2009) "Do the Strategists Know Something We Don't Know? Campaign Decisions in American Elections," The Forum: Vol. 7 : Iss. 3, Article 9.
DOI: 10.2202/1540-8884.1318
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/forum/vol7/iss3/art9