Every year, elections are held in our country to federal structures, regional, district and municipal self-government bodies. Candidates for deputies organize meetings with voters, promise a better life, pointing out the shortcomings of the existing regime. Each of them advertises themselves, their own ideas, their own political current. In the publication below, we will talk about what election campaigning is.
Political Advertising
People who stand for self-government are interested in ultimate success. In order to be elected, it is necessary to declare oneself publicly. That is why the nominees can not do without political advertising. But as we know from the course of the economy, advertising is always subjective. It is not the ultimate truth and most often exaggerates the politician’s achievements, exposing it to voters in an ideal, positive light. However, information about yourself can be made public not only through political advertising. Agitation and propaganda most accurately determines the action of the nominee. What is the difference between these concepts?
Agitation
Campaigning is part of the advertising campaign. Agitation is the impact on the masses through information. Its purpose is an attempt to change the behavior of voters. The candidate or his proxies agitate the population to come to the polling station and cast their votes to a specific person. However, the modern electorate in Russia is too passive. In order to induce people to come to the polls, it is necessary to make every effort to conduct an effective election campaign.
Agitation is a systemic process. The candidate will not be able to reach and interest the entire electorate at the same time. He needs to go to the territorial polling stations and carry out purposeful work there. That is why in the election campaign the nominee is helped by a whole group of specially trained people. Both the campaign headquarters and the nominee work to achieve one specific goal.
Ideology
As we have already said, the campaign of a candidate is often aimed at changing the behavior of the electorate. Its goal is to attract as many voters as possible in order to gain the necessary number of votes in the elections. The most effective tool in achieving the goal is ideology. For ideological reasons, the nominee selects a team at his headquarters. Ideology can serve as a methodological basis for agitation or propaganda. On ideological grounds, people rally, looking for supporters and followers. Political scientists say that in both agitation and propaganda, ideology is the leading link, a kind of superstructure. This phenomenon is based on the spirituality and consciousness of the electorate.
Propaganda
So, we found that campaigning is a deliberate impact on voters in order to change their behavioral norms. In contrast, propaganda pursues a deeper goal: it is aimed at changing the consciousness of the electorate. If campaigning takes place immediately before the elections, excluding the so-called day of silence - the last day on the eve of the vote, then propaganda is more broad-based. An attempt to change the consciousness of the masses, to attract them to a particular political trend, is aimed at a long-term perspective.Thus, in any subsequent elections, representatives of a political association can get new supporters.
Propaganda Spread
If pre-election campaigning is carried out at personal meetings with voters, by distributing leaflets, advertising leaflets, hanging banners in the streets, propaganda, as a rule, purposefully covers all existing media. Television, print media, as well as Internet portals are full of information that can infiltrate the consciousness of the masses.
People conducting propaganda work in the campaign headquarters are associated with the candidate with similar ideological interests. However, they must correctly understand the behavior of the masses, try to predict some steps of the electorate, be able to analyze information, process and comprehend the received data, correctly introduce certain political moods into the minds of people. As you can see, such work is beyond the power of a man from the street. This is done by specially trained people.
Propaganda, as well as agitation, is a systemic work. It is worth noting that the process operates much more efficiently if it is centralized and systematized. Consistency can manifest itself at different levels, but propaganda, which managed to affect not only the intellect of people, but also their will and feelings, is considered to be the most effective. In other words, all areas of human consciousness must be affected.
Conclusion
Both of the processes described by us are aimed at achieving specific political goals, both of them are driven by ideology. Both propaganda and agitation are systemic; they act as a theoretical and methodological basis for the mood of the masses. They combine the spiritual and practical components and are links in one process (political advertising). This process is focused on changing behavior (agitation) and consciousness (propaganda) of the electorate.
