Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century: A Whole New Ballgame?

So much has changed during the past decade in political campaigning that we can almost say "it's a whole new ball game." This book analyzes the way campaigns were traditionally run and the extraordinary changes that have occurred in the last decade. Dennis W. Johnson looks at the most sophisticated techniques of modern campaigning—micro-targeting, online fundraising, digital communication, the new media—and examines what has changed, how those changes have dramatically transformed campaigning, and what has remained fundamentally the same despite new technologies and communications.

Campaigns are becoming more open and free-wheeling, with greater involvement of activists and average voters alike. But they can also become more chaotic and difficult to control. Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century presents daunting challenges for candidates and professional consultants as they try to get their messages out to voters. Ironically, the more open and robust campaigns become, the greater is the need for seasoned, flexible and imaginative professional consultants.

Dennis W. Johnson is professor of political management at the Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University. He is author of No Place for Amateurs: How Political Consultants Are Reshaping American Democracy, Second Edition, and Congress Online: Bridging the Gap Between Citizens and Their Representatives; and editor of the Routledge Handbook of Political Management and Campaigning for President 2008. For ten years he owned his own political research consulting firm.