Three Faces of Constituency Campaigns in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems. Parties and Candidates in Germany, 2005–13

Abstract

Constituency campaigns are multidimensional and complex: parties and candidates are deeply entangled, and, at least in mixed-member electoral systems, local constituency campaigns are embedded within national party campaigns. Recent discussions have focused on aspects of campaign change in European democracies, especially disentanglement in terms of individualisation, personalisation, and/or localisation. This study contributes to the discussion both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, three dimensions (‘faces’) of constituency campaigns are differentiated: organisational partyness, vertical integration, and communicative personalisation. This threefold differentiation allows for a more precise analysis of campaign patterns by differentiating party–candidate (organisation, communication) and intra-party (vertical integration) aspects. Constituency campaigns in the 2005, 2009, and 2013 German federal elections are empirically examined. The analysis explains why candidates decide for one or another campaign pattern. These three faces are empirically distinct as well. Furthermore, we argue that parties remain vital for the organisation of campaigns despite a decline in centralisation. Addressing the communicative face, the analysis shows that candidate-related issues are important, but a mix of party- and candidate-related communication gains importance.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sebastian U. Bukow was senior lecturer (Akademischer Rat a. Z.) at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. Since April 2017, he is head of the politics and party research division of the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation. He is also a research fellow at the Party Research Institute Düsseldorf (PRuF) and spokesman for the DVPW standing group on political parties (AK Parteienforschung, German Association for Political Science). His research interests are political parties, legislative studies, and home affairs.

Michael Angenendt is researcher at the Party Research Institute Düsseldorf (PRuF). He is also a PhD student at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf and stipendiary of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation for Freedom. His interests are political parties, political attitudes, and rational actor political theory.

Notes

1 Despite consensus in the literature regarding the meaning of vertical integration (it ‘refers to the organizational linkages, cooperation and two-way interdependence’ between the different party levels, see Thorlakson 2013, 716), its operationalisation varies widely. We decided to confine operationalisation to the aspect of coordination, as this helps avoid obscuring organisational aspects, attitudinal motivations, and consequences, such as formal autonomy (see Thorlakson 2013).

2 Since list-only candidates do not have a constituency, they cannot run a constituency-focused campaign; consequently, they are excluded here.

3 The German federal electoral system provides two votes in mixed-member proportional elections. The first vote is a direct candidate vote (single-member district; majoritarian voting system); the second vote is a party-list vote. The party-list vote is decisive for the overall proportional representation in the German Bundestag. Consequently, a few more list mandates are common for maintaining a proportional balance.

4 Because of data restrictions, for 2009 we took into account whether a candidate had previously been an MP. However, parliamentary careers in Germany are seldom interrupted, so this is functionally equivalent.

5 See the related contributions in this special ES section (Special Symposium on Constituency Candidates in Comparative Perspective, edited by Thomas Zittel), combining several single-country studies, e.g. De Winter and Baudewyns (2015).