Kefford, G., Dommett, K. orcid.org/0000-0003-0624-6610, Baldwin-Philippi, J. et al. (5 more authors) (2023) Data-driven campaigning and democratic disruption : evidence from six advanced democracies. Party Politics, 29 (3). pp. 448-462. ISSN 1354-0688
Abstract
Data-driven campaigning has become one of the key foci for academic and non-academic audiences interested in political communication. Widely seen to have transformed political practice, it is often argued that data-driven campaigning is a force of significant democratic disruption because it contributes to a fragmentation of political discourse, undermines prevailing systems of electoral accountability and subverts ‘free’ and ‘fair’ elections. In this article, we present one of the very first cross-national analyses of data-driven campaigning by political parties. Drawing on empirical research conducted by experts in six advanced democracies, we show that the data-driven campaign practices seen to threaten democracy are often not manifest in party campaigns. Instead, we see a set of practices that build on pre-existing techniques and which are far less sophisticated than is often assumed. Indeed, we present evidence that most political parties lack the capacity to execute the hyper-intensive practices often associated with data-driven campaigning. Hence, while there is reason to remain alert to the challenges data-driven campaigning produces for democratic norms, we argue that this practice is not inherently disruptive, but rather exemplifies the evolving nature of political campaigning in the 21st century.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Party Politics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | political parties; campaigning; digital; data |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age 462-19-032 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 06 May 2022 08:55 |
Last Modified: | 28 Jun 2024 11:53 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/13540688221084039 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:186521 |
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