Political Psychology

How many votes are you losing because you don't know how the brain works?

2011-05-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

The voter's brain is like a
dark labyrinth...

9 out of 10 election campaigns fail. Someone else will be Mayor, Governor, Senator, Representative or President. Someone else will be part of their staff. There weren't enough votes and now there's nothing to do.

Everything was useless: the candidate's virtues, the good ideas of the party, the work of the activists, the money and time invested...

The night of the defeat destroys plans, projects and hopes. It’s the hardest and most bitter time in politics.

It’s when the questions hurt:
Why did they vote for the other candidate?
Why couldn’t we make the most of our opportunities?
Which were our mistakes?
Why our political communication couldn’t convince people?
Why many people didn’t vote for our candidate even when they actually liked him?
Why didn’t we see that we were losing votes?

And is exactly at that hard time when a truth, solid as a rock, appears: most election campaigns don’t understand how the voter’s brain works. Most election campaigns don't understand the political psychology of the voter.

Strategies, tactics, electoral advertising, political marketing, political communication and the whole election campaign would be different if we knew how it is that people decide who to vote for.

Political psychology, political marketing and election campaigns

Defeats and victories happen in the same place. A dark place for those who don't know it. A real labyrinth where almost everyone gets lost: the brain, the voter's mind.

Everything goes through the voter's brain. The speeches, the advertising, the rallies, the attacks, the defenses, the proposals, the projects, the jingles, the logos... everything is processed in the brain.

That's why scientific knowledge of the human mind can be used to plan a different election campaign. A more effective and precise election campaign. A campaign where the political marketing strategy would be in tune with the voter’s psychology.

Political Psychology gives you the opportunity to learn the voter’s psychology to apply it to your election campaign.

Political psychology reveals the secrets of the voter’s brain

The voter’s brain is like a dark labyrinth. If your election campaign doesn’t put some signs and light there, then the voter will get lost and won’t vote for you. How can we put some signs and light in that labyrinth? With a persuasive political communication that hits the target. In the design of that political communication is that political psychology can make it’s contribution, can make a difference.

Psychology has 2500 years of history and a vast capital of knowledge about human behavior. There are tens of thousands of works published on political psychology. Millions of pages dedicated to political psychology.

So why not discovering that world and making it work for political marketing?

Politicalpsychology.net, where political psychology lives

This website has a visible part and a hidden one. The visible part are the articles about political psychology. I recommend that you read them as an introduction on the subject and to start finding some ideas for your campaign.

But the hidden part of politicalpsychology.net it’s the most important one. It’s the group of exclusive articles that are available only to the most interested ones, to those who really want to know more. They are 2 articles a month that explain, in a didactic, clear and enjoyable way the secrets of political psychology and political marketing. It’s the Political Psychology Newsletter.

How much does it cost? Nothing. Zero. It’s free. And there’s more: with your subscription you will receive a digital book with extremely useful information.

Some readers ask why are the articles, the Newsletter and the ebook free of charge. And my answer is very simple: why not? They represent many hours of professional work, of course. And many years of studying and experience too. But sharing knowledge is priceless. Besides there are other products that you can buy on this site. So... why not?

Where to start?

You are in Politicalpsychology.net. You know, where political psychology lives. If you are a political leader, a member of a government, a candidate for any position or if you see politics in your future, if you are a political marketing consultant, or part of a campaign team, if you are in political communication or political advertising, or if you just love politics... then I invite you to discover this fascinating world.

Read the articles. That’s the first step. And then subscribe to the Political Psychology Newsletter to have access to the hidden contents (and the free report).

Daniel Eskibel
Psychologist, political consultant, teacher and writer

Privacy

2011-05-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

Strict privacy.
Your e-mail address is under profesional secrecy,
as strict as a confession to a priest.

Copyright

2011-05-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

If you like an article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in any way. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.

Any links to your own products or services, need to be done separate from the article itself, so that your audience can clearly tell it's your own link.

And include this at the end of the article:

©2011 Political Psychology Group. All Rights Reserved.
Article written by Daniel Eskibel.
The voter's brain is a dark labyrinth. And political psychology helps you see it's secrets.
Discover the secret side of political campaigns in
www.politicalpsychology.net

Mental and corporal effects of an election defeat

2011-05-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

We are so different from animals! Right?
Hmm. So different?
How much?
Let’s see.

A herd of animals has a hierarchical structure
A chief of the herd and then a whole arquitecture of power. Some with more power, others with less. And violent fights to remove whomever has the power to give it to someone else.

Every fight leaves a status quo. A social order that will stay for some time. And that happens because the defeated one accepts his defeat, becomes less aggressive and sometimes even docile. Which is a way to protect himself, because if he keeps attacking the boss he could get hurt.

It’s also a way of protecting the herd, because they can’t live in a context on constant battles.

The key to this social order is the relatively submissive attitude from the defeated when the fight for the power is over.

A human society also has a hierarchical structure
A President, ministers, legislators, mayors, governors... arquitecture od power between humans.

There are fights for the power too. Specially, and thinking in democratic terms, election fights. Every 4, 5 or 6 years, depending on the country and the election. Fights that can be fierce.

The one that wins the fight is the one that get to govern. The one that loses accepts the new situation. And in the society, the image of the winner grows for some time (it’s called ‘the honeymoon’ of the group the won).

The defeated tends to calm down, protecting himself and the society (no one can live in constant fight).

We have a new status quo.

A hormone called testosterone
Testosterone is a hormone linked, among other things, to aggressiveness, taking risks and reacting against a threat. The higher presence of the hormone, the higher development if this aspects.

I said aggressiveness, taking risks and reacting against a threat. I could have said fighting for the power. Because it’s a hormone that drives vital conducts when fighing for power.

It’s a hormone, on the other hand, which levels go up and down in every human being depending the situation.

Victories, in sports for example, raise testosterone levels, which makes the winner fight even harder to get new victories. But defeats, also in a sports area, low the testosterone in such a way that makes the defeated withdraw and retreat.

Low testosterone after an political defeat
It has been confirmed. Testosterone decreases after a political defeat. At least in men.

American scientists fron Duke University and the University of Michigan studied the subject on the presidential election in 2008 in the United States. They analyzed testosterone in a group that voted for Obama and a group that voted for McCain. They did it two times for each group, one before and one after the election.

These were the results:
Men that voted for Obama (the winner) showed stable testosterone levels before and after the election. Men that voted for McCain (the loser) had much lower levels of testosterone after the election.
Women kept stable levels before and after the election.

Conclusion: political defeats lowers testosterone levels in men. Which means a loser group ends up with men in some kind of temporary hormonal inferiority to fight for power.

This fact can explain many well known political phenomenons. For example the series of defeats for the same candidate and/or party, a long period of time of similar results. And also the popularity wave that winners have the first months after their victory.

Are we that different from animals?

Political speech of the body

2011-05-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

“¿Qué ves?
¿Qué ves cuando me ves?
Cuando la mentira es la verdad.”
(“What do you see?
What do you see when you look at me?
When the lie is the truth”)

That sings Argentinian rock band Divididos after the break up of the band Sumo. They sing about a very important thing. What do we see when we look at someone?

The body is not just a support for the words
The body talks. All the time. Before, during and after we talk. It has a constant speech that can strenghen, reduce or even contradict the verbal speech.

The body talks with gestures, looks, postures, colors, shapes, actions. It usually speaks a language that is not conscious. Not to the one giving the speech. And neither to the one receiving it and interpreting it.
But we know that the world of communication is not just about conscious matters. The conscious, the evident, the deliberated, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The body does politics too
It’s obvious but we say it anyway. The candidate’s body, the politician’s body is a body that talks. And it says, exactly, much more than what he wants. And the one that sees that, that reads that, understands it intuitively. He knows what it means even though he can’t put it in words.

It’s as if the politician gave his message in two different languages. As if the voter decoded it in two different languages too. Some examples from Argentinian politics can explain it very well:

Menem and the mirror
A constant about Carlos Saúl Menem (before, during and after being President) was the repeated attract of attention to his body.

“Follow me” was his slogan for some time. But his thick sideburns and his clothes seemed to say “Look at me”. And he wanted to be seen no matter what. He was always looking for places attractive to camera’s flashes and journalists.

Menem driving fast cars, playing football, playing golf, surrounded by women, showing his money, changing his look, showing his young appearence thanks to plastic surgery.

What was the message? “Look at me so when you do, you see yourself in a mirror”.

Menem’s verbal speech was about showing himself as the mirror of the desires of many people in Argentina at the time: forever young, rich, beautiful, athletic, consumer, exhibitionist, a bit eccentric and happy.

Mirror Menem. From both sides, by the way.

De la Rúa and his absence
Fernando De la Rúa’s body language was always absent, distant. “They say I’m boring” was the line used in his campaign. And his body really showed that.

De la Rúa escaping from Casa de Gobierno in a helicopter, De la Rúa lost on a tv set where he can’t find the door while everyone laughs, De la Rúa taking a nap in Casa Rosada, De la Rúa self-controlled and doubtful... But always absent, that was the message from his body.

Cristina and the excess
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s make up, gestures and clothes build a message of excess, of overacting, of an emphasis so strong that looks fake.

That way communication ends up being heavy, even dramatic, and the message loses simplicity and also loses the persuasive effect.

And it also generates strong and intense emotional reactions.
Seeing beyond words

The verbal speech is only part of the political speech. It’s important, but it’s not all there is. It’s just a part. The rest is not literature. The rest is the body. A body that talks.

Choosing the name for the political group

2011-05-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

This story might be familiar to you. A couple is having their first child and think about how to name him/her. More than thinking they:

analyze the meaning of the names
study each one's etymology
listen to family opinions
weigh up pros and cons
make lists and cross out options
get passionate and argue
consider the implications of each name

Finally the child is born and everyone asks:
- How did you name him?
And the couple answers:
- John

There's always someone thinking: 'and all that trouble just to name him John?'

A lot of people get really complicated with names
Of course there are many psychological springs in chosing the name of our child. Many. And that means that many parents get really complicated and turn the selection of a name into a little family via crucis.

That's being guilty by excess, trying to supersaturate a name with meanings. It comes to my mind the case of the Uruguayan family that named their son 'Cayó Maracana' (after Uruguay won the World Cup in 1950, defeating Brazil in their own stadium Maracaná).

Or my own grandfather who was given 3 names (Pablo Francisco Ponce) but ended up being called 'Quito' his whole life.

And let's not even start with the unknown fountain from where my father's family's names sprang: Lirio Neri, Dardo Aídes, Walter Armín, Jacinto Servando, Adelina, Roy... and then comes Daniel Nery writing these articles. Why is Nery the son of Neri? Who knows...

To sum up: many people get complicated with names.

New name for a new political group
"Politics are dynamic and always changing", said a political figure when explaining his whitering abandonment of a political position to embrace the exact opposite.

It's so dynamic and so changing that there's always a new organization growing: a party, a political group, a movement, a platform... And with that there's always a group of political leaders with the arduous task of baptizing the new group.

In politics, as in families, many complicate too much the issue, usually supersaturating it with meanings. And then they end up with an extravagant and impossible to pronounce name. Or they name it John.

So what's best? Simplicity. Common sense. Practicality. And considering a few basic criteria.

Some characteristics that the name should have:
1. Easy to remember and to pronounce.
2. To be very different from the names of the competition.
3. If it can make people curious, then better.
4. If it evokes some visual image in people's head, better.
5. If it help to communicate a valuable idea, even better.

I know, it's hard to gather this 5 qualities in 1 name (it's almost impossible). But those are qualities that help the name make it's way.

And then the key is repetition. Repeating and repeating. And associating the name with the actions, values and ideas we defend.

It was obvious. After all that, we just call him John.

How to convince the voters to approve your governmental administration?

2011-05-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

Making opposition is easier every day.

The government does, makes decisions, chooses ways, and acts. That's why it's exposed every day to criticism and to civic bad temper. The government lives on a showcase, on a glass box.

The others watch and point it with the accusing finger. The opposition choose its weakest acts, select its mistakes, underlines negative consequences, amplify damages and hit hard. This end, many times, with defeated governments before finishing their time.

However, a good marketing and governmental communication management helps to build a better horizon.

How to convince the voters to approve your governmental administration?
First, starting at home, with the governmental hierarchies and their social, political and family environment.

Around the responsible for the government, grows a weed that is hard to pull out. Almost everybody thinks they know how to communicate the work of that government. They tend to be a lot, influential nearly always, and with different training, occupations and experiences. And they push the government to the road they think it's better.

The clobber should stick to his last! The only way is to make communication and political marketing professional.

The persuasive building that a government must construct leans on five basic pillars:

Information
Advertising
Corporate identity
Community relationships
Internal communication

The communication of a government is very different from an election campaign
The election campaign is an agile 100 meter race, but the governmental communication is a 10 km marathon. The candidate wins by knock out, but the government is a boxer that wins on points.

The election campaign is a blitzkrieg, it's a fast and electrifying offensive, but the communication of a government is like World War I (a slow position war with long battles to conquer small trenches).

To achieve a successful battle on the governmental communication field is not necessary to invent gunpowder.

It's about putting into practice everything we know about political psychology, communicational psychology, social psychology, communicational science, theories of decision making, semiotics, journalism, public relations and strategic planning.

Don't forget that while your government is not building its image, someone is doing it for it. And that someone is the opposition, and it's building a negative image (which is the easier one to build). Don't let them win.

Disagreeing even with his face

2011-05-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

German writer Günter Grass won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. When Chancellor Helmut Schmidt fron the Social Democratic Party announced he was running for the re-election, Grass gave him his support even though he was not a part of Schmidt's party.

He visited Germany's most difficult places, those of most risk to Schmidt's campaign. Places where he could find the most harsh and critic assemblies. He went there and gave his arguments in favor of the re-election.

In the lion's mouth
Former Uruguayan President Julio María Sanguinetti travel around Germany with Grass on that re-election campaign for Helmut Schmidt. And he talks about it on an article on 'El País', a newspaper from Montevideo, on October 2009.
Sanguinetti tells especially an anecdote about Grass speaking at big university assambly. And he tells his arguments. There, in the middle of the controversy. In the lion's mouth.

What did the German writer say?

1. That when he wakes up every morning and looks in the mirror he doesn't like what he sees.

2. That he writes for 8 to 10 hours everyday but at the end of the day only finds usable 10% of the day's work.

3. That at night he meets with friends and discusses with them, agreeing sometimes and disagreeing in many others.

4. And he finished off in a memorable way: "So if I can't totally agree with my face, with what I write or with my friends... how can you ask to agree 100% with a political party?

5. To conclude Günter Grass explained that the only thing he pretended was having some guarantee of a serius and reasonable performance from the candidate.

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was re-elected.

The omnipresent criticism
What Günter Grass says it's true. No one can absolutely agree with something, not even with his own face. Completely, absolutely and totally? No way.

It's human nature.

We are critical, unruly, rebel. We learn to say NO before we learn to say YES. And that's good, or other way we'd still be drawing bisons in a dark cave.

Then, who could agree 100% with a candidate, a President, a Mayor, a Governor or a Legislator?

The administration of the criticism
Administrating that omnipresent criticism ends up being, from this point of viwe, a crucial element in every election campaign.

Note: where we say administrate we mean exactly that. Administrate the criticism. Not denying or chasing or trying to remove it or confronting it every step of the way.

Now what does it mean to administrate it?

Accepting naturally it's existence, without getting angry or desperate.
Answering to the main objections in a reasonable way (giving guarantees).
Don't demand or pretend a full approval of your proposals, it's not one huge granite block.
Focus your campaign in a few points, a few strong ideas.

Simple? Yes.
And that's good (although not that easy to do).

Political Psychology Programs and Courses

2011-05-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Information about Political Psychology Programs and Political Psychology Courses in United Kingdom, USA, France, Serbia, Netherlands, Ireland, Israel and Japan

Political Psychology Programs
Colleges and Universities with Comprehensive Political Psychology Programs

United Kingdom:
School Name: Queens University Belfast
School Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Country: United Kingdom
School Website: http://www.qub.ac.uk/
Program Website:
http://www.psych.qub.ac.uk/ProspectiveStudents/PostgraduateStudies/MScPoliticalPsychology/
Notes: The Centre for Research in Political Psychology (CResPP) at the School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, offers an MSc in Political Psychology, the first in the UK.

USA:
School Name: The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Online Campus
School Location: Online
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.thechicagoschool.edu/
Program Website: http://www.thechicagoschool.edu/content.cfm/international_psychology
Notes: The Chicago School offers an online M.A. in Psychology, International Psychology Specialization with a concentration in Political Psychology.

School Name: City University of New York Graduate Center
School Location: New York, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.cuny.edu/
Program Website:
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/provost/ids/program_information/psych_political_behavior.html
Notes: The Graduate Center offers an interdisciplinary concentration in the Psychology of Political Behavior.

School Name: George Washington University
School Location: Washington, D.C.
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.gwu.edu/
Program Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~elliott/academics/gcert/poli_psych.cfm
Notes: Students interested in the certificate in political psychology should contact the Elliott School of International Affairs Admissions office for specific admissions requirements.

School Name: Lewis-Clark State College
School Location: Lewiston, Idaho
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.lcsc.edu
Program Website:
http://www.lcsc.edu/catalog/minors/2005-2007/political_psychology.htm
Notes: Lewis-Clark State College offers a minor in political psychology.

School Name: The Ohio State University
School Location: Columbus, Ohio
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.osu.edu/
Program Website: http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/fields/
Notes: OSU offers political psychology as a field of study.

School Name: State University of New York at Stony Brook
School Location: Stony Brook, NY
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.sunysb.edu/
Program Website: http://www.sunysb.edu/polsci/grad/phdpolpsych.html
Notes: The doctoral program in political psychology trains students in the application of contemporary psychological theories, concepts, and methods to the study of political behavior.

School Name: University of California, Irvine
School Location: Irvine, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.uci.edu/
Program Website: http://aris.ss.uci.edu/polpsych/polpsych.html
Notes: University of California, Irvine offers a graduate program in political psychology.

School Name: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
School Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Country: USA
School Website: http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php
Program Website: http://www.polisci.umn.edu/cspp/
Notes: The Center for Political Psychology at the University of Minnesota is dedicated to the establishment of a strong research community for social scientists focused on the theoretical and practical advancement of political psychology.

School Name: Washington State University
School Location: Pullman, Washington
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.wsu.edu/
Program Website:
http://libarts.wsu.edu/polisci/graduate-studies/political-psych.asp
Notes: Washington State University offers an extensive set of courses in political psychology.

Political Psychology Courses
Colleges and Universities offering Political Psychology Courses

France:
School Name: Sciences Po
School Location: Paris
Country: France
School Website: http://www.sciences-po.fr/recherche/en/

Ireland:
School Name: Trinity College Dublin Psychology
School Location: Dublin
Country: Ireland
School Website: http://www.tcd.ie/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psychology.tcd.ie/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.politics.tcd.ie/

Israel:
School Name: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
School Location: Jerusalem
Country: Israel
School Website: http://www.huji.ac.il/huji/eng/
Psychology Department Website: http://social.huji.ac.il/eng/default.htm
Political Science Department Website: http://politics.huji.ac.il/department_e.htm

Japan:
School Name: University of Tokyo
School Location: Tokyo
Country: Japan
School Website: http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.html
Psychology Department Website:
http://www.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/eng_site/index.html

Netherlands:
School Name: Leiden University
School Location: Leiden
Country: The Netherlands
School Website: http://www.leiden.edu/
Psychology Department Website:
http://www.socialsciences.leiden.edu/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.socialsciences.leidenuniv.nl/politicalscience/

Serbia:
School Name: University of Belgrade, Serbia
School Location: Belgrade
Country: Serbia
School Website: http://www.bg.ac.yu/en_index.php
Political Science Department Website:
http://www.bg.ac.rs/eng/memb/facult/soc-hum/en_fpn.php

United Kingdom:
School Name: Lancaster University
School Location: Lancaster, England
Country: United Kingdom
School Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/apsocsci/ Political Science Department Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/politics/

School Name: University of Dundee
School Location: Dundee, Scotland
Country: United Kingdom
School Website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/prospectus/graduate/profiles/psychol.htm
Political Science Department Website: http://www.dundee.ac.uk/prospectus/graduate/profiles/politics.htm

School Name: University of Oxford
School Location: Oxford, England
Country: United Kingdom
School Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/

School Name: University of St. Andrews
School Location: St. Andrews, Scotland
Country: United Kingdom
School Website: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/
Psychology Department Website: http://psy.st-andrews.ac.uk/

School Name: University of Surrey
School Location: Guildford
Country: United Kingdom
School Website: http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/
Political Science Department Website: http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/politics/
Course Website: http://www2.surrey.ac.uk/politics/study/undergraduate/modules/

USA:
School Name: The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Online Campus
School Location: Online
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.thechicagoschool.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.thechicagoschool.edu/content.cfm/online

School Name: City University of New York Graduate Center
School Location: New York, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.cuny.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Psychology/ Political Science Department Website: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/Politicalscience/

School Name: Claremont McKenna College
School Location: Claremont, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/psych/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/ppe/

School Name: Columbia University
School Location: New York, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.columbia.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/polisci/

School Name: Duke University
School Location: Durham, North Carolina
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.duke.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psychandneuro.duke.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.poli.duke.edu/

School Name: George Mason University
School Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.gmu.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.gmu.edu/depts/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://pia.gmu.edu/

School Name: George Washington University
School Location: Washington, DC
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.gwu.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~psycdept/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.gwu.edu/~psc/

School Name: Georgetown University
School Location: Washington, DC
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.georgetown.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psychology.georgetown.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://government.georgetown.edu/

School Name: Harvard University
School Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.harvard.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.gov.harvard.edu/

School Name: Juniata College
School Location: Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.juniata.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.juniata.edu/departments/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.juniata.edu/departments/politics/

School Name: Lewis-Clark State College
School Location: Lewiston, Idaho
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.lcsc.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.lcsc.edu/psychology/

School Name: Minnesota State University, Mankato
School Location: Mankato, Minnesota
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.mnsu.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.mnsu.edu/psych/psych.html
Political Science Department Website: http://sbs.mnsu.edu/psle/

School Name: New York University
School Location: New York, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.nyu.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psych.nyu.edu/psychology11.html
Political Science Department Website: http://politics.as.nyu.edu/page/home

School Name: Northern Illinois University
School Location: DelKalb, Illinois
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.niu.edu/index.shtml
Psychology Department Website: http://www.niu.edu/psyc/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.niu.edu/polisci/

School Name: Oberlin College
School Location: Oberlin, Ohio
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/psych/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/politics/

School Name: Ohio State University
School Location: Columbus, Ohio
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.osu.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psy.ohio-state.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/

School Name: Pitzer College
School Location: Claremont, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.pitzer.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/field_groups/psychology/index.asp
Political Science Department Website: http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/field_groups/politicalstudies/index.asp

School Name: Rutgers University at New Brunswick
School Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.rutgers.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://nbweb.rutgers.edu/departments/psychology.shtml
Political Science Department Website: http://polisci.rutgers.edu/

School Name: Saint Anselm College
School Location: Manchester, New Hampshire
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.anselm.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.anselm.edu/academics/academic+departments+and+programs/?View=M&ID=32
Political Science Department Website: http://www.anselm.edu/academics/academic+departments+and+programs/?View=M&ID=31

School Name: Stanford University
School Location: Stanford, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.stanford.edu/
Psychology Department Website: https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/polisci/

School Name: State University of New York at Rockland Community College
School Location: Suffern, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.sunyrockland.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.sunyrockland.edu/academics/academic-departments/psychology/

School Name: State University of New York at Stony Brook
School Location: Stony Brook, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.sunysb.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/psychology/

School Name: Tufts University
School Location: Medford, Massachusetts
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.tufts.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://ase.tufts.edu/polsci/

School Name: Union College
School Location: Schenectady, New York
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.union.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/psychology/department/index.php/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.union.edu/academic_depts/political_science/index.php

School Name: United States Naval Academy
School Location: Annapolis, Maryland
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.usna.edu///homepage.php
Political Science Department Website: http://www.usna.edu/PoliSci/

School Name: University of California, Berkeley
School Location: Berkeley, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.berkeley.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psychology.berkeley.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.polisci.berkeley.edu/

School Name: University of California, Irvine
School Location: Irvine, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.uci.edu/
Political Psychology Program Website: http://aris.ss.uci.edu/polpsych/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.polisci.uci.edu/

School Name: University of California, Los Angeles
School Location: Los Angeles, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.ucla.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psych.ucla.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.polisci.ucla.edu/

School Name: University of California, San Diego
School Location: San Diego, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.ucsd.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psy.ucsd.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://polisci.ucsd.edu/

School Name: University of Colorado at Boulder
School Location: Boulder, Colorado
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.colorado.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psych-www.colorado.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://polsci.colorado.edu/

School Name: University of Illinois, Chicago
School Location: Chicago, Illinois
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.uic.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psch.uic.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.pol.uiuc.edu/

School Name: University of Iowa
School Location: Iowa City, Iowa
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.uiowa.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.polisci.uiowa.edu/

School Name: University of Michigan
School Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.umich.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/flash.asp

School Name: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
School Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Country: USA
School Website: http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php
Political Psychology Program Website: http://www.polisci.umn.edu/cspp/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.polisci.umn.edu/

School Name: University of Missouri at Columbia
School Location: Columbia, Missouri
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.missouri.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psychology.missouri.edu/home.php
Political Science Department Website: http://politicalscience.missouri.edu/

School Name: University of Missouri at Kansas City
School Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.umkc.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://cas.umkc.edu/psyc/
Political Science Department Website: http://cas.umkc.edu/polisci/

School Name: University of North Carolina
School Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.unc.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psychology.unc.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.unc.edu/depts/polisci/

School Name: University of Pittsburgh
School Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.pitt.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.psychology.pitt.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.pitt.edu/~politics/

School Name: University of Southern California
School Location: Los Angeles, California
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.usc.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/psyc/home/index.shtml
Political Science Department Website: http://college.usc.edu/politicalscience/

School Name: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
School Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Country: USA
School Website: http://www4.uwm.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Polsci/

School Name: University of Wisconsin-Madison
School Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.wisc.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://psych.wisc.edu/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/

School Name: Washington State University
School Location: Pullman, Washington
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.wsu.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://futurestudents.wsu.edu/academics/fos/study.asp?ID=PSYCH
Political Science Department Website: http://libarts.wsu.edu/polisci/

School Name: Western Kentucky University
School Location: Bowling Green, Kentucky
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.wku.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://edtech.wku.edu/~psych/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.wku.edu/pcal/political-science

School Name: Wheaton College
School Location: Norton, Massachusetts
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/Acad/Psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/Acad/PoliSci/

School Name: Williams College
School Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.williams.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.williams.edu/Psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://polisci.williams.edu/

School Name: Yale University
School Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Country: USA
School Website: http://www.yale.edu/
Psychology Department Website: http://www.yale.edu/psychology/
Political Science Department Website: http://www.yale.edu/polisci/

Source: www.ispp.org

A journey towards political psychology

2011-05-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

"Intelligence is not only knowledge, but also the ability to apply that knowledge into practice."
Aristotle

Politics and psychology. Psychology and politics. Aristotle was born almost 2400 years ago in the Ancient Greece. Remember Aristotle's quote that 'man is by nature a political animal'?

Aristotle said that politics is a discipline that studies the general matters of the polis, that is, the city. Encyclopedic in his knowledge, Aristotle also set many cornerstones for psychology.

Psyche is psychology, brain, mind, behavior... City is politics, democracy, candidates, voters, elections. That's how politicalpsychology.net was born.

Psychology
Freud, Sigmund Freud. His name stood out in a small-town bookstore. I was 16 years old, I bought the book and read it in no time.

From that moment psychology has been part of my everyday life, always, everyday.

That same year of 1975 the streets of my little town had vans full of soldiers. The military dictatorship was hitting hard.

And also from that time politics was a big part of my life, always, everyday.

Then there was college. I was a bearded psychology student that read non-stop. I was also a clandestine activist against the dictatorship. I was learning.

In 1982 I graduated as a Psychologist. I left college (Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay) and started my practice. 3 years later the dictatorship ended and I could exercise my right to vote.

Psychologist in democracy: I worked in my practice, had my patients, taught philosophy; I kept reading and studying. Social psychology, communication psychology, semiotics, advertising, and more and more psychology.

Psychologist in democracy: I was still involved in politics, painting walls and signs, writing pamphlets, speaking at rallies, being interviewed for radio and T.V. shows, planning and organizing.

At the time, I didn't know I was on a journey towards political psychology.

From psychologist to political consultant
The first step was leaving my political party. It was 1990, 3 years after my postgraduate course in Social Psychology. Then my first political consultancy in 1994. Everything just started to happen.

The books, the articles, the clients, the students...
Political psychology, that's what this is about.

There are many political consultants in the world. And very good ones, by the way. But what makes me different from almost all of them is one simple but strong fact: I'm a psychologist. I apply political psychology to political marketing, election campaigns and government's communication.

Psychology of the voter, of communication, of politics. Psychology.

That's my contribution, my thing, what makes me different. Quoting Jorge Luis Borges, that's 'my center, my algebra and my key'.

And everything because of that Sigmund Freud's book...

Pauses on a permanent campaign

2011-04-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

The year of the World Cup. A good moment to remember strategical factors in football :

1. Dynamic
2. Pause

A good football team needs dynamic. That is: permanent and intelligent activity and movement for the 90 minutes of the game. No distractions.

But a good football team also needs a break, a pause. A talented player that stops the ball, observes the field and knows how to change the rhythm.

Dynamic without pause can turn into a crazy hustle and bustle. And pause without dynamic can be just unresolved slowness.

They are contradictory factors that necessarily have to go together, integrated in the same team. Dynamic and pause, pause and dynamic.

The permanent campaign
Nowadays, election campaigns aren't reduced just to the election period. They are permanent. And those that don't have a permanent campaign are overflown by those who do.

Election campaign, of course. But also small campaigns about different issues of a particular moment's agenda. Campaigns to launch a new political group or a new candidate. Campaigns to reinforce your position. Campaigns from the government and from the opposition.

Campaigns, always campaigns. Permanent campaigns.

In other words, political communication has to be an integral and permanent part of the political action of both the opposition and the government. And if the political action never stops, then the communication never stops either.

One more time: permanent campaign.

The refreshing pause
The risk in every permanent campaign is the overexposure of the politician. With it's counterpart: the rejection of the voter.

The voter does not live for politics. He just lives his life. And his political interest has ups and downs related to different factors. He doesn't like, he can't stand being surrounded by politics all the time.

The voter gets bored, gets tired, gets exasperated and saturated.

So the politician has to disappear from his eyes and his ears. He has to be out of reach. Get of the screen and off the radar at least for a while. Having a low profile before appearing again.

So, a pause. Leaving the scene for a moment. Changing the rhythm.

Neither hyperactive nor passive
Usually, the ones that get good results aren't the hyperactives or passives but those who can manage the dynamic of the permanent campaign with the intelligence of pauses.

The voter can't forget about the candidate, but he can't get tired of him.

Political Psychology Photos

2011-04-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

How to survive an image crisis

2011-04-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Your project is being bombarded. You are being attacked from every side.
They hit and hit. What are you going to do?

You are in crisis. Your government, your candidate, your political party, your institution or your company is harassed by enemy's artillery.

For Chinese people, the crisis concept is represented by two ideograms: one meaning danger and other meaning opportunity. To throw yourself towards danger or to strengthen to the opportunity is your decision. Yours and only yours.

How to survive an image crisis
A crisis can seriously damage and even ruin your company, your government or your election campaign. But it can also give you the opportunity to make a big progress, restore your image and even improve it.

The battlefield against the enemies of your project is complex, ancient but postmodern at the same time, and it's darker than people usually think. It's the human brain. It's there, in the brain of your objective public, where the defensive battle must take place.

A crisis situation is a decisive battle. You have to fight strongly, but mainly intelligently. If you succeed, your project not only will be saved but it might also be strengthen. Like Nietzche said: "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

So, how to survive?

That's the first thing you need: a different, objective, renovated look. A look that really looks, that discovers and doesn't repeat stereotypes or commonplaces. To get out of a crisis you have to break with logic of those immersed on it and start with a new, fresh and diverging logic. That's the only way to surprise your enemy.
Don't try to invent gunpowder, it was invented a long time ago. You just have to use it. Do you know that governmental, managerial and political crisis have already been studied? Do you know that a strategic typology and efficient tactics to successfully face attacks already exist?
Start with an agile systematization of the main forces that are operating on the critic situation. That includes characteristics of the attack, of the attacker and of the one that's being attacked; social, political and economic context, condition of the public opinion, markets positions and media roles.
You need a strategy to focus on the segment of public that you want to convince and not on the attacker's image.
You need a strategy to minimize the damage that the attack might cause and to escape unhurt from the storm.
And you need a strategy to turn the attack into a boomerang against your enemy

Every mistake is expensive. Every lost minute turns against you.

What does the political consultant do for you?

2011-04-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

The political consultants work with three consultancy methods:

1)In situ consultancy
The consultant works directly and personally on the battlefield during the whole campaign. He settles in your headquarters and integrates to your staff.

2)Online consultancy
The consultant works form a distance, using mainly e-mail, chat (and eventually the phone or special mailing delivery)

3)Mixed consultancy
The consultant works combining in different grades moments of direct presence on the campaign field and moments on online presence.

What does the consultant do for you?

Market surveys
He studies scientifically the voters, as a group and as different relevant segments.

He uses for that all available material: public opinion polls, focus groups, statistical facts, electoral antecedents, historical information, sociological studies, in depth interviews, media information and psychosocial emerging.

And he builds solid hypothesis on collective psychology of voters, on their needs, wishes, attitudes and political behaviors.

Rival candidate's analysis
He finds out their strengths, their weaknesses and their strategies.

For that he studies theirs speeches, their interviews, their political documents, their records, their party memberships and their public acts, as well as the information from polls, and focus groups.

And he decides which candidate competes with you for the votes and tries to anticipate his political moves.

Audit your own image
He investigates deeply and objectively the strengths and weaknesses of your own candidature.

For that task he uses similar procedures to the used for the market survey and the opponent analysis.

And helps you to highlight your strong points and to tone down your weak points.

Designs the campaign strategy
This is the decisive point. Here is where you start to win (or lose) an election.

Includes: aims to achieve, public that we are trying to impact, marketing strategy, position, campaign subjects, media plan and time planing.

The three investigations above are the base to build the campaign strategy.

Builds the public personality of the candidate
The consultant, with elements of your own image, creates the identity signs that will make you immediately recognizable and that, at the same time, will strengthen your message: logotype, literary slogan, auditory slogan, music or jingle, campaign photograph, prestige codes, verbal discursive style, chromatic scale and gesture codes.

Creates basic campaign texts
Elaborates important speeches, writes leaflet texts and press advertisements, scripts for radio and television, messages for web pages and e-mail marketing and all important text of an election.

The right word is essential on the electoral battle.

Helps you to prepare your public appearances
He advises the candidate permanently to get the highest benefit of your press, radio and TV interviews and of your oratory at public acts.

He improves the quality of your communication with the public. And he makes sure that the message gets to the target.

Manages advertising tasks
He works with the advertising agency hired for the campaign. He points out aims y strategies, proposes ideas and supervises the making of posters, leaflets, press adverts, TV spots, radio adverts and posters on public thoroughfare.

He manages the advertising to insert it in the general campaign strategy.

Manages informative tasks and public relations
He works along with the candidate's staff that fulfil that kind of tasks.

He manages informative activities and those of link with the community to strengthen the general strategy. And helps training the team.

Gives advice on the organizational side
He contributes with his experience to improve the organizational structure of the election campaign.

Guides on crisis situations
He helps to face political crisis, which are almost inevitable on election campaigns. He gives advice about how to manage attacks, how to minimize the damage and how to make the rival's aggression become a boomerang against them.

Follows the campaign
He checks step by step the campaign development, makes periodic evaluations of the fulfillment of your own projects and of your rival acts; and he makes every adjustment or correction necessary.

The show of politics

2011-03-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

The image of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's bloody face travelled around the world. He had been brutally assaulted at the end of a public rally, and T.V. cameras had captured the moment of the assault and of Berlusconi leaving in his vehicle.

A dramatic image for sure.

Another image travelled around the world. This time it was the Cumbre de Jefes de Estado de Iberoamerica. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez talks and talks questioning former Spanish President José María Aznar, making his actual colleague José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero very unconfortable. And then we see the exasperated face of King Juan Carlos saying the memorable "¿Por qué no te callas?" (Why don't you shut up?).

It's true that an image is worth a thousand words. But these that i'm telling you say something more than that. They show how politics have been turned into, yes, a show.

Politics in the XXI century are a show
Yes, it's more than that, more than ideas, more than bla bla bla. True. But it's a show. And political news are consumed as a show.

Everything is a show, someone can say.

Well no. Not everything. A newspaper, a magazine, a book is not a show. A small meeting, a visit to someone's house is not a show. Giving a pamphlet or a conversation between 2 people is not a show either.

The circus, the movies, the theater, a rock concert, the T.V., that's show. And it's the powerful role of television that pushes politics turning it into a show.

The show has it rules
For a random event to be spectacular it must have some characteristics. There are the rules, signs of identity that differentiate it from other events.

There are 3 elements that you need if you want a show:

A body that shows himself, that tries to get every look on him. It's the main character of the show.
The look of those that just because of the fact of looking, become the audience.
A distance that separates but at the same time brings together the characters and the audience. A stage, for example. Or the camera.

Turning politics into a show
Think about the politics in your country. I'm sure you'll identify several examples than connect the 3 elements I mentioned before and make politics a show for a massive audience.

Politics as a mass show. With it's corollary: many politicians acting like movie stars. Berlusconi is a clear example (beyond the episode of the assault). But he's not the only one.

And there's a second corollary: lots of journalists talking about political news the same way that celebrity's journalists work.

And a third corollary, probably the most important one. Many voters thinking, feeling and acting as if they were on a show.

The logic of the show
There's no use in complaining: the logic of the show, thanks to television, is incrusted if contemporary politic's heart.

I think no one can win an election nowadays without considering this. Think about what I'm saying. No one. Not even a candidate that runs for Mayor in a small town.

Welcome to showbusiness!

Persuasion and electoral success

2011-03-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

Persuasion is the key to the electoral success.

Money? Organization? Persuasion? To build a successful election campaign you need those three things. But persuasion is the key, without it the others have no point. It's the base of the tower.

A campaign with lots of money, great organization and little persuasion ability is as fragile as pyramid leaning on its vertex. Whereas a campaign with less money and a smaller organization but with a great ability of persuasion, that bases on the ability to convince, is as solid as a pyramid leaning on its base.

Where will you lean your pyramid, on the vertex or on the base?

What happens on the voter's mind
Some essential principles are:

The vote decision is based on the emotional area, though the voter rationalizes it later.
The voter wants to feel independent, he doesn't like to be pushed to vote someone, and he wants to be persuaded and seduced.
Every psychological discovery is perfectly applicable to the voter's behavior.
Making a vote decision is a complex procedure and many (and contradictory) causes have effects on it.

Any improvement in your convincing ability will become a higher number of votes for you and a lower campaign cost.

Even a little change on persuasion might have a great impact on the election campaign.

Remember: doing always the same has always the same results.

The losers karma

2010-08-25T16:10:00.001-07:00

In politics, as in life, you have to learn to lose too.

However, 95% of politicians know how to do it. An irrefutable proof is that the very next day of the defeat they start blaming everyone but themselves for their failure. The guilty menu can be very wide: other candidates, the media, the power of money, the publicity and finally the elusive voters that didn't understand what was best for them.

Nonsense!

My dear politician friend: with that kind of thoughts you will always be a loser. You will win only the day you discover that, just like every other candidate that lost, you are deaf, blind and mute.

(I hear many candidates protest, so proud of their ability to listen to people, to see reality exactly as it is, and to talk!).

But I insist. Deaf, blind and mute. That's where you have to look to find the reasons why you failed.

(my friend -says one of them- do you have any idea of the thousands of people I listen to in my political career?).

Are you listening?

I'm sorry to disappoint you. You can meet with thousands of people, but I'm talking about really listening to what they say and want, and how they think, and specially how they feel.

Actually most politicians listen to other politicians, not to the regular people on the streets. And they listen to a little number of close people, that usually make with words a virtual reality that is very different from the other reality.

Besides, like the Greeks said, 'the gods blind who they want to lose'. Because of their difficulty to listen, the politicians that lose stop seeing reality as it really is.

They see what they want to see, what fits their prejudices, what's good for their strategies. They only see the virtual world, that internal circuit of politicians and specialized journalists. Far away, somewhere out there, regular men and women see them pedaling in their bubble. That's why they lose.

(I hear a voice from the bottom of a bubble: 'let's say you are partly right, but you can't say we are mute! Please! US mute??!).

Political word and political psychology

It seems pretty clear that politicians have been given the gift of speech. But that doesn't mean they make themselves understood. The political word usually has two congenital defects.

The first one is the complete lack of summarization. They speak too much, they think more equals better, they want to say everything about everything.

If you give 90 seconds to a politician he will see it almost as an insult: 'you can't do anything in that time, you can't communicate anything in so little time'. However, 90 seconds is a long time for an interview in the news. And for a publicist 90 seconds is enough time for 4 different ads.

The second defect is that is an egocentric, self-centered speech. Because you don't know the recipient, because you haven't listened carefully to the public opinion, your word doesn't reach the recipient and gets lost.

I say it again: the politician that loses is mute because he speaks in vain, just rhetoric with no substance. His communication doesn't convince, doesn't get into the human mind, where the real battlefield is.

Most politicians are losers. There are many people who fight for each position, but only a few actually win.

The losers lost even before the votes were counted. They lost because they didn't know how to communicate with the voter. And to communicate, you need to know how to listen, see and talk.

And loser are deaf, blind and mute.

The election campaign's team

2010-08-25T16:09:00.001-07:00

The first strategic decision that a candidate has to make is to choose a team to run the campaign.

It has to be only a few people, with specific roles, qualified for the job, effectively organized and fully supported by the candidate.

The team
How many? The exact number varies, but some functions have to be done:

Candidate. Yes, the candidate has dedicate time to the campaign and to work with his team
Campaign chief. The candidate has to trust him 100%, he has to have some political experience, has to know the local reality and has to have executive management skills
Political consultant. With a solid vision of political marketing and election campaigns
Field chief. Operative coordinator that has both political vision and a good practical and executive sense
Publicist. He should subordinate creativity and aesthetic to the pragmatism of communicational objects
Someone responsible of informing the media
Chief of the territorial campaign

Team's tasks? Elaborate a strategic plan for the campaign and then putting it into practice.

From that team then you set the rest of the organization for the campaign, but those seven roles and their effective coordination are the key for the campaign's success.

The candidate's name

2010-08-25T16:08:00.001-07:00

A good name can be a great asset for a brand, both in the political and in the business world.

Of course, politicians can't choose their name, but they can use the one they have very good, or very bad.

For some, the right thing to do is use only their last name (Menem, Chávez, Lagos), others should use their full names, others a pseudonym (Lula), or a fist name (Fidel), a sign (ZP instead of Rodriguez Zapatero) or even just a letter (K instead of Kirchner).

George W. and JFK
It's interesting to look at this phenomenon in the US presidential election.

In many places the voters find the initials JFK to refer to John Kerry, It doesn't really matter that his middle name starts with an F but it's not Fitzgerald: in any case JFK alludes immediately to Kennedy, one of the biggest democrat myths for the Americans. And that's how Kerry tries that his name resound in the emotions of the public because of the characteristics of JFK.

Something like that happens with Bush.

His signature, his campaign ads, part of his signs... everything says George W. Bush . And it doesn't matter that his middle name is not Washington. The public get the message that tries to link his name to the mythical founder George Washington.

By doing this, George W. Bush tries to touch the most patriotic and traditional emotions on voters that are sensitive to them.

In the main scenario of our conscience Bush and Kerry clash. But behind that there's a mix of ideas and feelings related to John F. Kennedy and George Washington.

Because names are signs, signs that tell us what they want to say but also suggest a lot more.

And on election campaigns, names have power. The power of seduction and influence beyond our conscience.

Tabaré Vázquez
Let's keep studying names but now with an example from Uruguay.

In 1996 I published one of the first Political Psychology books in Uruguay. The title was 'Tabaré Vázquez. Seductor de multitudes' (Montevideo, Ed. Fin de Siglo), and I analysed the political communication of someone that at that time, was an emergent leader but wasn't fully consolidated yet.

That book sold out more than one edition, and Vázquez is about to be the new Uruguayan President (after this article was written, he actually became President). So it's a good moment to share a paragraph that talks about the power of names:

'There are many little doors in Dr. Vázquez's speech. Some lead to a scene studied on another chapter: the wizard of the tribe. Others connect to a very interesting Uruguayan myth: TABARÉ. Have you heard of it?

All the people in Uruguay have some memory, maybe not very accurate, about Zorrila de San Martin's Tabaré. We have read at least a passage in school, and it's one of those founding stories that contribute to the legend that says that Uruguayan people are different from the rest of the world.

Tabaré was a different indian, son of an indian and a captive Spanish woman. He wasn't completely charrúa, but he wasn't spanish either. A charrúa indian with blue eyes. And the sweet look in his eyes was contrasted by the poet with the hateful look of his tribe.

The meaning of his name was 'the one that lives alone, away from the people', referring to solitude and individualism. He's a good, quiet melancholic, sad and mysterious men. And everybody talks about him.

Tabaré can't let go of his past: he's tied to what he's lost and can't get back. We could say he's living a pathological grief and can't grow or change. The future doesn't exist and the present is completely infiltrated by the past.

But also, being so innocent, he's the victim of others evilness. He unjustly dies, accused of crimes he didn't committed. (1)

The name Tabaré is a little door that takes us to Tabaré the myth. And then an idea starts to grow: doctor Vázquez is different from the other politicians, he's full of human feelings and he's wrongfully attacked.

Maybe for many people it's the image of sad and individualistic people, dazzled by it's past and resistant to change.

Almost a religious experience
What happens when the spectator goes through one of those little doors in Vázquez's speech? What are the consequences on their mood, their emotions, their points of view, their behaviour?

Myths allow to reach a specific mind attitude, different from the everyday one, establishing a very peculiar connection between men and the world.

'Mythical knowledge doesn't allow doubts or other evidence from it's own' (2).

'Myths propose to the group a way of understanding the world and themselves, of what's possible and what's not. The story that the myth tells is an imaginary past that grows and becomes indestructible , and can't be confronted with any historical truth and can't be refuted. This story is shared by everyone that feels identified with it and the myth gives identity to the group'. (3)

So going into that mythical world means to achieve a deeply superior level of certainty than the usual. A conviction that also allows to feel that we belong to a group with a clearly-defined identity. And the reality told by the myth is relived with some religiousness and exaltation.

It's a very strong experience, even when the one that lives it isn't fully aware of all the mythological connotations that surround him. Because that smuggling it into the conscience is what makes the effect more powerful.

It's like a magic ritual: for an instant the spectator leaves chronological time and reality and enters a fabulous time, filled with mysteries, full of life and energy.

And he leaves that please with new confidence: if what is going to be done already happened in the myth, then it will happen again. You just have to follow the same model. David already defeated Goliath, Obdulio had the 'maracanazo', the foreigner defeated the gunmans, Christ healed and left his message...

How not to trust this with more enthusiasm than all the other speeches that wear out so fast, without a little door to the myth?

Juan Zorrilla de San Martin: Tabaré. Editorial Kapelusz, Buenos Aires, 1965
Peré Salabert: De la creatividad y el kitsch. Meditaciones posmodernas. Ediciones de Uno, Montevideo, 1991. Page 51
Saúl Paciuk: Los uruguayos, entre la cosa y la invención. Revista Relaciones, n° 118, Montevideo, 1994. Pages 9-11.'

Telerman, Macri and Filmus on televised debate

2010-08-25T16:07:00.001-07:00

The debate between the main candidates for ‘Jefe de Gobierno’ of the city of Buenos Aires ended about an hour ago. Daniel Filmus, Mauricio Macri and Jorge Telerman debated for over 2 hours in an event organized by the T.V. show ‘A dos voces’, on TN Channel.

My first thought on the subject is that Telerman (current Buenos Aires’s Jefe de Gobierno) gain a considerable advantage over his rivals. Let’s see what happened:

Telerman was placed in the center of the image, a privileged position for the viewer’s eye. His rivals, on the other hand, were both on the sides, usually decoded as less relevant.
The set gave something else to Telerman, because he was talking with a mainly white background (a colour that gives the idea of purity, cleanliness, clarity), while Macri and Filmus had a red one (the colour of danger, of warning, of aggressiveness).
The cruellest camera on a debate is the one that shows the person that is not talking, and that because of that has less control over his gestures. What were each of them doing while they weren’t talking? Telerman was looking to the one speaking, in a serious, attentive way, keeping a calm attitude and nodding from time to time. Macri looked out of the corner of his eye with an aggressive gesture, and Filmus moved abruptly, looking down and keeping his head down one minute and having his head too high the next (going from submissiveness to arrogance in a few seconds).
Telerman’s gestures were more expressive, talking and emphasizing with his face, his arms and in hands in a non verbal speech that was very integrated with the verbal one. Macri looked more rigid and Filmus was moving with no control of the television space even leaving the frame.
Telerman showed a lot more nuances in his voice, expressing himself with more emotional components.
Jorge Telerman’s verbal speech had more variants: he used humor, metaphores, he talked directly to the viewers and to his rivals, he used some silences, some specific references to specific facts, he did a good summary, he was very clear, focused on a limited amount of topics, used simple expressions and showed good memory (for example reminding one of his rivals that he was the subject of the economical interest of the businessman that did business with the Nation, and that the other one was subject to the political interests of the government).
Filmus and Macri’s verbal speeches were more conceptual and generic, maybe more intellectual and away from a daily lenguage. Besides they both tried to cover too many topics and didn’t have the synthesis that the viewer nowadays demands.
Macri and Filmus let Telerman had the verbal control: he had the last word on many subjects, they asked permission to say something, permission to make a proposal and sometimes addressed him as if Telerman was the moderator.
Macri tried to be the one with the proposals. But Telerman took the challenge and used it to take that role himself and repeated that proposal are good but actions are better (and that was directly related to him, considering he is the current Jefe de Gobierno of the City of Buenos Aires).
Filmus had one good resourse: big and well made signs that summed up some big issues. But he used them wrong, giving the cameras too little time to show them (because he moved them too fast or showed them in the wrong time, when it was impossible, because of the dinamic of the debate, to focus on a sign).
Macri and Filmus acted as if they were on a broadcasted political meeting, while Telerman handled the television logic well, adapting to it’s extremes of show and entertainment.
At all times Telerman looked more confident, calmer, more stable, more convincing. He didn’t even hesitate to accept some of his rival’s ideas as a way to neutralize them.
Jorge Telerman’s visual presence dominated the scene completely: Yul Brinner style, shiny bald, impeccable clothing, right manners, courtesy gestures and an upright position.

In short: Telerman took the opportunity of this debate and clearly defeated his rivals on the race for the Jefatura de Gobierno of the City of Buenos Aires.

Tabaré Vázquez’s defeat

2010-08-25T16:06:00.002-07:00

Politicians, journalists, analysts and voters, everyone is sure that Tabaré Vázquez will be the next uruguayan President. That is, certainly, the most likely scenario. However, there is a second one, less likely but possible: the Frente Amplio’s leader’s defeat.

Political success doesn’t depend on the evolution of the economy or the hard numbers of demographics. Political success depends on communication, on the ability of each candidate and each party to convince the voter.

In that matter, Frente Amplio party has proved to be very efficient and that is why it has been growing as a party for the last 20 years.

And it grows in any situation, with a dictatorship, with democracy, with recession and with expansion, with the lowests and the highests rates of inflation and unemployment, with the bipolar world of the Cold War and with the posmodern globalization.

And with an extra paradox: the majority of the people in Uruguay tend to vote for the left, but keep identifying themselves with the ideas and positions of the centre.

Particularly Tabaré Vázquez has showed an accurate aim for a more effective communication, that skips every politized elite and convinces the regular people.

And while he was underestimated by the elite for a long time, he kept improving his skills: his speech, his gestures, the hipnotic use of his voice, his almost religious rallies, his direct connection with uruguayan myths and legends, his appearences and absences form the scene, his strategical silences, his smart use of his image as the good doctor and oncologist fighting evil, his perfect use of television and his highly professionalized publicity campaign.

All this has been consolidating his powerful brand image.

The defeat’s scenario

To defeat Tabaré Vázquez, this is what is necessary:

One of the traditional parties has to reach, in the primaries, a number of votes that is strong enough to make it a rival against the Frente Amplio party.
On the first ballot on October, 31^st, Dr. Tabaré Vázquez can’t exceed 45% of the votes.
On the second ballot, November 28^th, Vázquez opponent has to get the votes of the majority of the other traditional party.

Are this golds impossible? No, they are not impossible. They are complex and hard to achieve, but they are possible.

To attain them, it’s not enough to win the undecided voters, it’s also necessary to win the vote of many citizens that already like Tabaré Vázquez.

It’s an unknown task, that hardly anyone has done on a large scale, mainly because the left has achieved the great psychological victory of imposing the almost mystical idea that when ‘frenteamplism’ arrives to the voters head, it never leaves. Never.

They have built with infinite patience the myth of irreversibility, saying that when someone sympathizes with the Frente Amplio party, that moves him away forever from any other party. And they’ve transformed that myth into a common place of what’s ‘politically correct’ with such efficiency that even their rivals believe it.

Of course, there’s a group of people in the party that are absolutely convinced and nothing can change their mind.

But the reality is that there’s also a wide sector with a lighter level of support. They are an angry and discontent public, and they are also very independent, free and non ideologized.

So whoever wants to win, has to take votes from the Frente Amplio party.

Hitting out blindly

Since 1971 the traditional parties have been hitting out blindly against Frente Amplio. Some of the recipes they have used, which failed and will keep failing if they keep using them, are the following:

Ignoring Frente Amplio, underestimating and even marginalizing it from the main political scenarios.
To discredit and to look down on it’s leaders.
Proposing the idea that a Frente Amplio’s government would be like the end of time, an apocalyptic time full of chaos and destruction.
Showing differences and contradictions on the Left, hoping for it’s division (when actually they have suffered many divisions but kept growing no matter what).
Avoiding a public debate (for example the plebiscite about the national fuel company, ANCAP: for a whole year Frente Amplio campaigned across the country while other parties remained silent, and when they tried to react, it was too late).
Setting the debate on ideological terms: marxism against democracy, nationalism against political liberalism.
Praising on the personality and the ideas of some Frente Amplio’s sector that are more moderated, like Danilo Astori (whose presence not only doesn’t weaken Vázquez but also makes him stronger by giving the moderated and centrist voter an aliby, a justification for their vote: “if Astori is so good, so reasonable, so capable and I agree with him so much, and if he is with Vázquez... then why wouldn’t I vote for Vázquez even though I don’t like him that much?”).

Those are seven steps in the clouds, seven times hitting out blindly, seven strategical mistakes.

Attacking the leader

In terms of political marketing, Tabaré Vázquez is the leader in the election market. Whoever wants to win has to attack his position.

The attack can’t be too general or indiscriminate. And it can’t be discrediting or insulting. And it has to avoid the mistakes we already pointed out. Non of that works.

To make a successful attack is necessary to evaluate objectively which are the strengths of the market’s leader. And then focusing in the weakness implied on that strength.

So which is the strength of Frente Amplio and it’s candidate?

It’s strength lies on a simple fact: since it’s creation 33 years ago, the Frente Amplio party has always been the opposition.

And as such they have many advantages: they don’t take responsability on any negative balance that the previous governments have left; the leaders present themselves as clean, pure, and different from all the others that have been in the government; their programs are presented as superior to any other we’ve known, focusing all the discontent that people may have on their rival’s hands, building a mystical idea of social change and fight against power; simplifying their message and trying to get the vote of people from outside the party, asking just for a chance.

Which is the weakness that this strength implies?

The weakness is in being the opposition. It’s the difficulty to make people believe that they can actually govern. There, in that narrow front, is were victory and defeat play.

In short: to defeat Tabaré Vázquez, someone has to really show that the Left is not ready to manage a government. And with something extra: the party that wants to win has to show that they are ready for that.

The weakness

To attack the weakness and defeat Tabaré Vázquez, this are the topics that should be considered:

Increasing the visibility of the sectors and leaders of Frente Amplio that are more radicals. Them, with their own extreme speech, so away from the government culture, will burn the bridges with the moderated sectors of society.
Putting in the spotlight the mistakes made by the local Frente Amplio’s government (in Montevideo) for the last 15 years. Each of those mistakes is a direct missile against the Left, because the agressiveness always used on their rival’s mistakes turns around like a boomerang.
Placing the political agenda on the regular people’s agenda, trying to highlight the Lefts omissions and mistakes, showing the consequences and comparing them with the solutions that other parties have come up with.
To confront Tabaré Vázquez about government issues. If there are no radio or T.V. debates, you can also have a long distance debate trough the media. And for that they only have to follow Vázquez statements on radio and T.V. and just answer to him, always through the media.
Report negative or problematic behaviors, current or past, of leaders, candidates and members of a possible Frente Amplio’s government.
Communicating solidly and clearly their own proposals.

Attacking the leader, in terms of marketing, it’s always the hardest strategy. That’s why all efforts have to focus on that front, without looking at other attractive sides.

It’s necessary to be efficient and accurate in communication terms. It’s not about expressing personal angers or prejudices, or to insult anyone. It’s about convincing a certain audience.

The alternative scenario

In 2004 Uruguay lives a presidential election that is singularly significant. In the first months of the year, it’s seems certain a scenario where the Left wins. However, another scenario is possible too, one where Tabaré Vázquez loses.

What can happen in october and november? The victory of Frente Amplio will finally be assured? Or the second scenario will surprise us?

The Left’s worst enemy is triumphalism, because it can interfere with their current main tasks: identifying the risks on time and blocking that defeat scenario.

And the worst enemy for traditional parties is the psychological defeat, because it can also interfere with their tasks: seeing their opportunities on time and building their winning scenario.

In every case the key is on the communication that each of them achieves with the people. That’s the answer to all political questions at this time.

Tabaré Vázquez – Seducing crowds

2010-08-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Dr. Tabaré Vázquez is, since March 1st, 2005, Uruguay’s new President.

Doctor, oncologist, 56 years old, Vázquez is a member of the Socialist Party and the leader of the left-wing coalition, the Frente Amplio. He was ‘Intendente’ of Montevideo (Uruguay’s capital city) from 1990 to 1994. Then he was defeated on the presidential election in 1994 by Julio M. Sanguinetti (member of Partido Colorado) and again in 1999 by Jorge Batlle (from that same party).

Finally, in october of 2005, he reached the absolute majority in the first ballot, achieving 50,5% of uruguayan voters.

Communication to succeed

Between 1996 and 1997, I did a research on Dr. Tabaré Vázquez’s political communication, and I studied every written piece produced by him or where he took part: speeches, interviews, press releases, T.V. spots, political rallys, etc.

I applied to this raw material an arsenal of interpretative tools articulated by political and social psychology, including other tools from psychoanalysis, semiotics and anthropology.

The result was published under the title of ‘Tabaré Vázquez: Seductor de multitudes’ (Fin de Siglo Publishing, Montevideo, 1997).

The book was among the 5 best-sellers by a national author in the non-fiction section, selling out several editions and having multiple repercussion in the media around the country, generating controversy and even becoming subject of study on a university level.

On that study I pointed out that Vázquez differs clearly from other politicians because of his great communication skills, particularly his fine undestanding of T.V. communication.

I explained that he was the first post-modern politician in Uruguay, that he capitalizes the simbolic power of his condition of doctor, that he connects his speech with the deep mythical roots of the people, that he was supported by an excellent advertising machine and that he had a solid base that the left from this country had been building with gramscian patience for years.

I also analyzed on the book the ageing, communication wise, of the leaders of the other parties, (‘Partido Colorado’ and ‘Partido Nacional’), who kept holding to old modern and pre modern ideas in communication and image, and leaving it all to inertia and moving away from the people’s wishes and needs.

The book was not in favor neither against Vázquez, but it tried to be a serious and rigorous analysis that showed his psychopolitical and communication characteristics.

But it clearly showed that if the other parties didn’t realise on time the huge potential that Frente Amplio’s communication had, if they didn’t realise how far behind their own communication was, if they didn’t do something to change that, sooner or later, Dr. Vázquez would be the next president.

Communication to lose

The book was ridiculized by Dr. Antonio Mercader (publicist for ‘Partido Nacional’, former Secretary of Culture and Education).

He published a column in the most important newspaper in Uruguay, ‘El Pais’, in reference to what he calls ‘the cult to Tabaré Vázquez’s personality’ and according to Mercader, the book meant the beginning of a long political operation that was created to praise Vazquez’s figure.

Even more: he considered that the seduction that’s used from the book’s title is just an attribute that some people pretend to give him but that he doesn’t really have.

Mercader’s surprising intellectual operation it’s just a revealing symptom of the deep lack of communication skills in Vázquez’s opponents. It’s easier to plot crude conspiracy theories than to assimilate reality as it is, including our own personal and cultural limitations to understand some new phenomenons that happen in Uruguay’s society.

It’s not about sharing or rejecting the political ideas of the new President. It’s about understanding that Vázquez and the left have developed a new communication that is more creative and much more effective than the traditional communication in politics in Uruguay.

A communication that has better quality, that is more professional, more in tune with the people, and closer to more advanced countries. In short: they have developed a more effective communication that attains the goal: to persuade the voter.

Mercader only sees Vázquez as the enemy that took the hegemony from the traditional parties. He can’t see beyond that, he can’t see in Vázquez the signs of a communication that the others parties wil have to learn, if they want to stop communicating to lose and start communication to win. But if they don’t get it and don’t learn from it, they might lose many more elections.

If they look towards Brazil they will see the same thing, but in different ideological areas.

When Lula learned how to communicate, he won. Because what decides an election is not a political program, legal-rational lucubrations, the little juncture things, or the favors offered or promised to the voters, not even having the best candidate or the best party or the hard social and demographic variables. What decides an election is political communication.

That simple and that radical: the election campaign is a communication war. That’s why by winning that communication war, Tabaré Vázquez is the new uruguayan President.

Solving the problem of the unknown candidate

2010-08-25T16:05:00.001-07:00

Barak Obama's successful campaign in the US gives very important clues on how an unknown candidate can become the political star of his country in no time.

Black, young, with little political experience and unknown to the public. That's Barack Obama, the new star in the US politics. Or I should say that was him (before the democratic primaries).

Obama? It's hard to imagine a name that is less suitable to the north american political psychology, who doesn't forget about Osama (bin Laden). But yes, there's even a worse name: Hussein. Do you know Obama's middle name?

Yes. Hussein. Barack Hussein Obama.

How can a candidate like that be the biggest revelation in the election campaign in the United States?

David Axelrod, Obama's political strategist

Obama's election campaign has David Axelrod as it's main strategist.

He's one of the most important political consultant in the US and he doesn't live in Washington (he lives in Chicago, but he's from New York). Axelrod has a big career as a politics journalist, and has been working on election campaigns for the Democrat Party for a few years now.

Which are the main characteristics of the strategy designed by Axelrod?

The campaign not only presents ideas, it also shows Obama's personality, emphasizing on his biography, his authenticity and credibility
Obama's biography turns into a story, getting the candidate closer to the people. And there's also a generational thing: "this is the generation that will do what America needs"
The campaign is conceived as a 'crusade' full of idealism, optimism and pragmatism
They try to move the democratic bases, looking for their initiative and decentralized action
The campaign is based on a media tripod: internet, T.V. and signs on the street. Each one has a role and also complements the others
There's just one clean, simple and convincing message: CHANGE. The campaign uses different forms of that idea of change, but it's always that idea
Third party's voices (politicians, journalists, activists) give testimony and certify, authenticate and underline the news that the candidate brings
It's a message of hope, contrasting the future with the past.

It sounds simple, but it's very complex.

When the candidate is unknown, the first thing to do is to put him in the spotlight with a strong issue that identifies him and connects him with the people's neds.

Then the basic task is to relate him with the position he's aspiring to, making his biography a story, getting strong testimonies about his personality and ideas, working on a clean, simple message and showing a lot of optimism and hope.

He really has a chance?

Not long ago, Barack Obama was unknown. A couple of years as Senator looks like a modest record to aspire for the White House.

It's impossible to know yet how the competition with the republican John McCain will end, but we can say Obama will be the democratic candidate (only a miracle can save Hillary Clinton). And even if he's not the democratic candidate, or if he is but McCain wins, Obama's campaign made him a star in the US politics.

When many ask if an unknown candidate can aspire to be President, Governor or Mayor... Obama's campaign shows that yes, it is possible. If it's a bad campaign or just a regular or discreet one, the candidate will probably remain unknown and without a chance.

But if you have a good campaign (using Obama's unofficial slogan) "yes we can".

Practical tips for political success

2010-08-25T16:04:00.001-07:00

Political success, which reaches it's highest point with an electoral victory, consists of many factors.

Of course there aren't any recipes (or are there?), but I dare to suggest a few basic tips. They won't assure a victory, but without them you can say goodbye to triumph...

1. Start right, start first

Don't save all your resources till the end of the campaign. It's essential to have a strong beginning, powerful and solid, marking territory.

The first TV ads are fundamental to get into the electors head.

A solid position allows you to get to the battlefield first and get the best spot. Those days are when you can build an almost indestructible image.

Use the first days: voters are usually fresher, clearheaded and more open to proposals. And your opponents tend to be distracted.

2. Remember the Internet

Your campaign must have a strategical presence on the Internet.

Study the virtual market in your country. You have to know how many people have access to a computer and to the Internet, either at home, at work, at school or at a cybercafe. You'll find out that the number grows everyday.

And consider that is a very special public. Because of their sociocultural characteristics they are opinion makers. Convincing them has a cascade effect on the rest of society.

An Internet campaign gives you many tools: a website (or more than one), an e-mail account as an organizational and informative instrument, debate forums, a closer communication between the candidate and the people through on line chat, newsletters, facebook, twitter and e-mail marketing campaign.

3. Campaign topics

Your election campaign must develop a few central topics. One, two or three. Not much more.

Get away from the empty campaign that doesn't say anything. But get away also from the one that tries to say everything about everything.

Just a few solid and clear ones, easy to explain and related to the people you are addressing to.

A good research on public opinion, a strategical plan, good topic choices and then, talk about them every time everywhere!

4. Life and death on TV

Television is the queen on every election campaign. If your are not there, then you won't make it. It's that simple.

And if you make it to the small screen, it's heads or tails, it's the life or death of your political career.

You don't need just a solid budget to pay for your TV time, you also need to professionalize your message. No friends that know something about the subject.

To survive on TV you need a good advertising agency and consultants in communication, image and politics (but a political advisor that is more an advisor than a politician).

5. The candidate

People vote for real people, for human beings, for candidates. That's what you have to offer: your candidate.

The key is not in judicious proposals (that all look alike lately), or in the fidelity to political parties, or in the name of unknown groups and movements, or in the old tricks of traditional politicans. No! The key is the candidate.

Show him, let people see him, hear him, sell his characteristics, his advantages over other candidates, his strength, his ideas. Remember: you can only vote candidates.

6. The logotype

Transform you candidate's name into a logotype, done by professionals and that says want you want to say. That is as easy recognizable as a brand. And then write the name always like the logotype, in every sign, sticker, banner, TV ad, website, wall, pamphlet and flag.

Everywhere the same, with no variation or 'creative' additions (can you imagine the word Coke in capital green letters?... Then don't do that to your candidate).

Political pychology of the color red

2010-08-25T16:03:00.002-07:00

A few days ago, while I was putting on a red shirt, I thought about the elections in Bolivia and the use of color. I thought specially in the use of color from the defeated candidate, Jorge Quiroga.

Because the colors chosen for a campaign is a fundamental part of the political marketing and political psychology.

Quiroga used red, a violent red that dyed his whole campaign: isotype, website, posters, flags, brochures, and even the clothes of candidates and activists.

The red and political psychology

What does red transmit, when in it's pure state? It's the red of blood, of danger, of violence, of extreme situations. It's the red that makes you stop, not that makes keep going.

It's one thing the red from the Argentinian channel Crónica TV, that shocks violently, trying to stop you from changing the channel through a commotion. But red in politics, and worse if it's just a pure, hard red, that's another thing.

The color choice was an important strategical mistake of Tuto Quiroga, and it's worse if we consider that we are talking about a country hit so many times by violence, confrontation and blood.

Bolivia needed a message of hope, of unity, something that couldn't be done from the red.

Evo Moraes, on the other hand, went for a rainbow that represented ethnic, cultural and social diversity. A rainbow that talks about shades and union between different ideas. And a rainbow where the main colors were those of the Bolivian flag (green, red and yellow).

There's no doubt that Evo also won the color battle.

Political psychology of crime

2010-08-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

Year 1969, Stanford University, United States of America. Profesor Phillip Zimbardo designs a political psychology experiment.

Almost 40 years later we know that Prof. Zimbardo is an expert in his field, an internationally known specialist, an emeritus proffesor at Stanford, former professor at Yale, New York and Columbia, former president of the American Psychological Association and author of many scientific contributions in the social psychology field.

Let's go back to his experiment. What did he do in 1969?

He left two cars abandoned in the street, two identical cars: same brand, same model, same color. He left one in the Bronx, a poor and controversial area in New York at the time. And the other one in Palo Alto, a rich and quiet area in California.

Two identical cars abandoned, two neighborhoods with very different residents, and a team of social psychology specialists analyzing people's behavior.

The result?

The car left on the Bronx was scrapped in a few hours. It lost the tires, the engine, the mirrors, the radio... everything that could be used was taken, and what was left was destroyed. The car in Palo Alto, on the other hand, kept intact: nobody touched it.

-It's poverty!- a choir of voices says immediately. Because of course, it's became usual to blame poverty for every crime. And with that idea agrees, strangely or maybe not so strangely, both the hardest right and the hardest left.

However, Zimbardo's experiment wasn't over yet. The car abandoned at the Bronx was destroyed. And the one at Palo Alto was in perfect condition after a week. So the investigators did one thing. Just one.

They broke a window of the car in Palo Alto. The result?

The same thing that happened at the Bronx happened now in Palo Alto. The stealing, the violence, the vandalism, left the vehicle like the one in the Bronx. In a few hours and with the same fury.

So? Why a broken window in a safe neighborhood can set off this criminal process?

So it's not about poverty anymore. Now there's evidence that it's something else, something related to human psichology, with how people relate to each other, and how communities and individuals interact.

A broken window in an abandoned car is a big message. A message that talks about deterioration, lack of interest, of concern, about the break of certain rules of behavior. A message that many decode as the absence of law, of rules, of regulations. Like anything goes.

Each new attack to the car reaffirms that message. And the broken window ends in the most irrational violence.

The broken windows theory

The fuse lighted by Zimbardo in 1969 is still burning. One of the most interesting later developments is the result of the work of Prof. James Q. Wilson and Prof. George Kelling.

Their concepts are known as the broken windows theory. Their studies conclude:

1. That crime is worse in areas where negligence, dirt and mistreat are usually found.

2. That if you break a window in a building and nobody repairs it, soon all the other windows will be broken too.

3. That if a community shows signs of deterioration and no one seems to care, then that's where crime will grow.

4. That if 'little' crimes are commited and are not punished, then bigger and bigger crimes wil happen.

5. That deteriorated public spaces are progressively abandoned by most people (that nervous and scared just go home) and those same spaces are occupied by delinquents.

The broken windows theory was applied for the first time in mid 80's in the New York Metro, where George Kelling had been hired as a consultant.

The New York Metro had became an insecure place, a place of fear and danger. So faithful to his ideas, Kelling recommended a security strategy that started with fighting little crimes: graffitis, dirt, public drinking, evasion of ticket payment, little disorders...

The result was extraordinarily encouraging. Starting with small things, soon the Metro was a safe place.

Later, in 1994, Rudolph Giuliani was elected Mayor of New York and named William Bratton New York City Police Commissioner.

And who was him? He was in charge of the Metro Police while Kelling was a consultant. What did he do? Based on the broken windows theory and his experience at the Metro, he encouraged the Zero Tolerance policy against crime.

The key to this strategy was to create clean and well cared communities, not allowing any kind of crime. The practical result was a huge fall in all crime rates in New York.

Zero tolerance against crime

Some people hear the expression 'zero tolerance' and wrongly believe it's some kind of authoritarian and repressive solution.

Actually, it's the exact opposite, it's more about prevention and promotion of good security conditions.

It's not about a primitive horde lynching the criminal, and it's not about police abuse of authority. It even has zero tolerance about that.

It's not about the death penalty or lowering the age for legal responsability.

And it's also not about some recipes created for some other reality, it's a group of ideas that with different names and applications can benefit different societies.

This is not a minor fact: it's not zero tolerance against the actual person that commits the crime, it's zero tolerance against the crime itself. And that's a big difference.

What it's actually about is building (or rebuilding) clean and organized communities that respect the law and the basic code of social and human coexistence.

Political psychology and election campaigns

2010-08-25T16:02:00.001-07:00

Many political leaders and campaign advisors say, like dreaming with an utopia, that they could win elections if only they knew how the voter decides his vote.

Why not using political psychology? 2500 years of knowledge don't have anything to say about the voter?

An election campaign is not played in the media or in the street, it's played in the human brain. There's the key. It's each voter's brain that receives the campaign's messages and decodes, analyzes, files, interpretates and even modifies them.

That's the battlefield where all the messages from all the candidates fight. That's where they have to persuade the voter and get the vote. That's where the elector's feelings, ideas and memories are. And that's where the decision of the vote is made.

The brain, if we think from a physical point of view. The mind, from the psychological field.

The problem in every election campaign
There's always a problem to solve. Election campaigns can be described like this: a battle in the voters brain. But the ones in charge of the campaign don't know anything about that brain.

That's why we have to turn to political psychology.

The voter, the candidate and political psychology
In ancient Greece, about 2500 years ago, the first thoughts on psychology emergend. Those curious Greeks started to observe and analyze people's behavior, their conduct, feelings, reasoning, emotions, social relationships, fantasies...

One of those philosophers, Aristotle, was the one that had more developements in this area of knowledge. Aristotle, who defined the human beign as a 'political animal'. Political came from 'polis', which related to the cities. So men were a kind of animal that cared about the issues that concern the city they lived in.

For a few centuries psychology growed and developed with the help of philosophy. Centuries and centuries of knowledge. Until the last decade of the 19th century.

First Wundt started the firs psychology lab, trying to apply similar methodology to the ones used in natural sciences. And then Sigmund Freud revolutionized the concept of psychology with his discovery of the unconscious.

Psychology then separated from philosophy and became a science.

During the 20th century psychology accumulated an amazing and little known amount of knowledge. And it developed in every direction, beign applied to literally every aspect of life. And that's when political psychology is born.

Political psychology is, of course, a scientific discipline.

It studies the political life focusing on the mental process of the voter. It throws some light into the parts of the brain that are activated by the political messages and the election campaigns.

It studies, experiments, analyzes investigates, makes hypothesis, experiments again, observes, makes conclusions and observes again...

Political psychology produces, and produces a lot. Articles, books, conferences, seminaries... And it's been doing it for a few decades now.

However, the vast majority of politicians are completly unfamiliar with this, and don't know that they can find in political psychology most answers to the questions that come up on an election campaign.

On the other hand, election campaigns happen all the time all over the world. There's always one going on. And politicians, publicists, consultants, journalists and strategists also produce a lot. But the ones who really know about political psychology stay in their academic fields and don't go to the political arena.

Applying political psychology
If the human brain is the battlefield in every election campaign, then applying political psychology's knowledge becomes a strategical element in an election.

Applying political psychology to the election campaign. Tha's what it's about.

Macri's election campaign

2010-08-25T16:01:00.001-07:00

Mauricio Macri was elected yesterday as Jefe de Gobierno of the City of Buenos Aires. The key points of his election campaign were:

1. A positive campaign, made of proposals and ideas

2. A shared spotlight between Macri and the candidate for SubJefe de Gobierno, which was a woman, turning the candidate into a man-woman couple.

3. The slogan was 'Va a estar bueno Buenos Aires' (Buenos Aires will be really good), playing with the polysemy of the word good, that can mean a lot of things for different people.

4. The use of yellow as the main color in the campaign, the color of life, of the sun, of brightness, of warmth; and very noticeable color to paint the city's walls.

5. The use of a tone sometimes intimate, they are 'Gabriela and Mauricio' and they talk about hypothetical or real citizens by their first name, 'Jorge has a kiosk and has been robbed tens of times'.

6. A mono-graphic dedication in the campaign for specific subjects, resisting the temptation of referring to national, political or ideological subjects.

7. Using simple testimonies of regular people, without many production and around the idea of 'Buenos Aires would be really good...'

One final note.

The main character is the couple here, and not the candidate alone, which facilitates an emotional and collective climate that psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion called pairing.

According to Bion, this group emotional state means to delegate in a couple the tasks of integrating and repairing, and this state also increases the productivity and creativity of the group, and moves the group away from hate and dependence. The couple will grow something new that will fix us.

It's maybe the pro-creation of ideas, of solutions, of a really good Buenos Aires. That's the psycho political phenomenon of 'Mauricio and Gabriela'.

Lula: Brazil’s President for the second time

2010-08-25T16:00:00.001-07:00

Every poll showed that Lula would be reelected in the first ballot, but he didn’t exceeded that 50% that every analist considered obvious. Actually, Brazil’s president have been escaping from a big political crisis that had been following him for years: accusations of corruption.

The political scandal enden the career of many leaders from the PT (the Worker’s Party), although for a long time it seemed that Lula was left out of it and was not touched by the crisis.

Finally, the crisis exploded in the middle of the election campaign. Brazilians saw in every news show on T.V. the packs ,that came to US$800, to buy a report to accuse the rival candidate, Gerardo Alckmin, of corruption.

The new scandal ended Lula’s chief of campaign career, and probably had a big impact among the voters, specially among those undecided and those not very convinced.

This fact probably affected the result of the President not getting that 50%.

Election campaign
Despite all this, Lula had a very good campaign that tried to hide his possible weaknesses.

The star of the television spots is always the candidate, not the PT that has been so questioned.

In a white shirt and tie, with no jacket, Lula shows reminiscences from chilean Joaquin Lavín’s campaign. The set that sorrounds the candidate adds qualitys of modernity and effectiveness. He looks more like a T.V. news presenter than a candidate, and that probably relates to the credibility he’s looking for, something that is weak in his party right now and might survive better in the news that brazilians watch every night.

‘Lula again with the people’s strength’ is the power idea. The message is almost transparent: now that politicians have abandoned him (his rivals because hey question him harshly and his own party because they betrayed him), now it’s time to lean on the people.

Look at the details: the purity of the sky, the chromatic range of the spots gives the idea of cleanliness, which is absolutely necessary in a defensive strategy against a corruption scandal. See the place where Lula is: clean and neat, of course.

They are defensive messages. And it’s ok because Lula had to close the gap on the corruption issue. The spots are an almost surgical suture procedure, an attempt of closure for the matter. He tries to convince that others might be corrupt, but not him, never him.

As expected, Lula was reelected as the President of Brazil for four more years.

The brazilian president had already won on the first ballot, but now some new elements played on his side:

Political agenda stopped being signed by corruption scandals, putting on the spotlight other topics (such as the economy) where Lula has an advantage over his opponent (specially because his Plan Bolsa Familia has benefited almost 40 million brazilians by giving them US$40 a month in cash in exchange for sending their kids to school and vaccinating them, which has gave him the massive support of the poor sectors in north and northeast Brazil)
Lula changed his strategy and decided to attend T.V. debates (4 in one month), where he showed his charisma (something his rival lacks of)
Alckim, Lula’s rival, had to play defensive when his disposition to continue with Plan Bolsa Familia was questioned.

The question that remains in Brazil and Latin America is: is it possible that a corruption scandal has no effect on a government?

How to REALLY use a political consultant

2010-08-25T15:59:00.001-07:00

'Most people that hire me doesn't really know how to use a political consultant'. Words of Joseph Napolitan, a political consultant with over 35 years of experience. That's why Napolitan wrote several useful recommendations for candidates, political parties and campaign chiefs. I share them with you.

1. The political consultant should not be considered a threat

It's imperative that those who work with a consultant, specially the campaign chief, know that he has only one purpose: to help them win the election. The campaign team has to understand that the consultant is a resource to be used, and not a threat to their aspirations.

2. Establish the consultant responsibilities in advance

Considering there are different kinds of consultants, before hiring one it has to be very clear what specific responsibilities he will have during the campaign. If he is going to work on a specific area or if he's going to provide a more general service.

3. Make sure you have the right political consultant

Clients must be sure that the consultant they are hiring knows exactly which is their political philosophy, even if he doesn't share it a 100%, he can't radically oppose.

4. Get a political consultant as soon as possible

The more the consultant is involved in the campaign, the better he can work and he can be more valuable to the candidate, the party or whoever the client is. If the consultant starts his work when all the important decisions have already been made, his potential value will be reduced.

5.Name a direct link with the campaign

It's not a good idea for the candidate to be the link between the consultant and the campaign. It's better to have a campaign chief that has direct access to the candidate and can make the connection when it's necessary.

6. Decide who is going to know that you hired a consultant

Depending the country you're working in, it can be delicate to let the public know that you're working with a foreign consultant, so it's better to be discrete to avoid negative consequences for the candidate.

7. Give the consultant the tools and resources he needs.

Different consultants have different requests, and the consultant's needs can vary from one campaign to another. The consultant is the most important person in the organization of the whole campaign team, and as such he should have everything he needs to work with.

8. Use your consultant's experience

It's true that the consultant has more experience in campaigns than the candidate and his staff and that's why you should used him in every way. However, you have to be careful with the knowledge he may have about the country, but never reject an idea just because 'we don't do it like that here'.

9. Listen to your consultant

You are not obligated to follow your consultant's advise, but you have to at least listen to him. You are losing his time and your money if you don't.

10. Talk with your consultant before making any important decision

It's not much what a consultant can do after a wrong decision, but most of the time he can prevent the client from making one.

11. Always tell the truth to your consultant

There's no point in you giving your consultant wrong information because he will base his decisions in that information so you are the one who'll lose.

12. Instruct your team to cooperate with the consultant

If you want to benefit from your consultant, he has know everything that's happening on the campaign, directly or through the campaign chief. If he doesn't know what's going on, he can't help.

13. Use all the consultant's time

It's frustrating for the consultant and unproductive for the campaign that he wastes time to meet with the right people, that means losing time and money.

14. Organize your appointments in advance

Due to the many responsibilities everyone involved in the campaign have, it's very important to design a long term calendar so everyone can know the consultant's moves.

15. Establish an effective communication system between the visitors and use it

The client should always be able to reach the consultant, that's why the campaign chief has to be able to find him in case of a crisis.

16. Think of your consultant as another member of your trust circle

Make sure the consultant or whoever represents him have full access to every decision process when he's in the country.

17. Value your resources in a realistic way

Don't fool yourself when you consider what you have for the campaign, the consultant will eventually find out the truth.

18. Don't let your pride be an obstacle for winning the election

The goal is to win the election so if you have to look for help outside your country just do it. Don't worry about hurting your country's consultant's feelings, because that risks your election.

19. Don't point out the consultant's presence if it can be bad for the campaign

Sometimes it's better to keep a low profile and not making much noise when the consultant arrives to the country

20. If you don't understand an advise, ask for a better explanation

Consultants are supposed to be communicators, so the least he can do is efficiently explaining his points of view.

21. Make sure that the approved decision actually get done

The campaign's chief is very important for this to happen, he has to make sure that what the consultant says gets done.

22. Trust your consultant

If you can't trust your consultant, then you've hired the wrong person. If the consultant knows your problems, he can be ready for the moment they appear on the campaign

23. Agree on a payment schedule and stick to it

If you expect him to do his part of the deal, do your part too.

24. Don't be afraid to ask for help

If you have a problem, call your consultant. Don't worry about bothering him, he will prefer to get a midnight call rather than learning the next day about a catastrophe he could have prevented.

25. Don't expect miracles

No consultant has a perfect record. Everyone will sometimes lose and sometimes win. No one wins every election; but the best ones with most of them or they won't be in the business long.

26. One last thing

If you decide to hire a consultant, use him: his advise won't do any good unless you actually use it.

First debate between Bush and Kerry

2010-08-25T15:58:00.001-07:00

In the University of Miami, Florida, in front of 50 million viewers, George Bush and J.F. Kerry had their first debate.

The debate series was thoroughly regulated by both candidate's teams. The result was an extensive document that established dates, places, topics and many many details that went from camera angles to the room temperature in the studio.

Who won? That always the question in this circumstances.

American analysts and journalists insist that the winner was Kerry. Indeed, the challenger looked more convincing, faster, more precise, more aggressive and with a much more solid base.

But things are not that simple.

Actually, Bush had some advantages.

First of all, his position of President of a country that is in a war and that is very concerned about national security. This context favours him everytime war issues are considered, even if his rival can shine a little too.

Second, the fact that he's leading the polls. Who has the obligation to win is the rival, not the market's leader. Bush wins with a tie, and even with a decent defeat.

And third, many analyst underestimate Bush's charisma in the American people. In his gestures, his look, his half-smiles and even in his hesitation when he starts to answer, there's something that seduces a wide sector of americans. Kerry, on the other hand, is more cerebral and cold, more rigid and less 'close' than the President.

Finally, Bush is very questioned because he constantly repeats the same ideas and concepts, and is considered to have little arguments and lack of intellect. However, it's possible that this repeating thing is actually a communication virtue that puts them into the viewer's head.

So, the first debate. It looked like Kerry won, although Bush performance kept him leading the polls.

Only time will tell.

Election campaigns on the Internet

2010-08-25T15:56:00.002-07:00

99% of election campaigns (for President, Governor, Mayor, etc) don't really know how to use the Internet in a productive way.

A new kind of campaigns, adapted to the 21st century voter, does know how to do that. And that's a difference that can be decisive.

What is the role of the Internet on an election campaign?

1. Not having Internet presence is literally suicidal. There's no need for further comments.
2. Having a website is NOT having an Internet campaign, it's a little part of that campaign.
3. A website it's not a Christmas tree, with little signs that turn on and off, twinkle and change color everywhere, killing the fragile attention of the Internet user.
4. A website is not a T.V. channel or a movie theater, with videos that take forever to download and usually add little or nothing to the campaign.
5. The web is NOT a photo album, or a pamphlet or a poster.
6. And it's not a diary, or a newspaper, or a magazine.

So what's Internet good for on an election campaign?
To promote on line and off line participation on the campaign.

To get a large number of people to receive and spread information, send e-mails to their contacts, make phone calls, attend rallies, make donations, visit their neighbors, talk to their co-workers, write a blog, upload a video, publish photos and give dynamism, initiative, ideas and creativity to the campaign.

That simple and that complex.

I repeat: Internet is not cinema, is not television, is not a newspaper, is not the radio. Internet is interaction. And it's values have to do with simplicity, downloading speed and way to facilitate participation.

Every means of communication has it's own profile and role on the campaign. On a previous article I analyzed the role of the election signs, now it's about the Internet

Let's leave the T.V. logic for a television campaign. Let's use Internet on the campaign, but with it's own logic.

Elections campaigns - Models

2010-08-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

What I propose is a political marketing model based neither on the candidate nor on the publicist or the consultant, but based on the political psychology of the voter, on the scientific knowledge of the human mind.

The experience shows 3 basic types of political campaign.

However, I believe a fourth model is necessary, one that concentrates on the elector's psychology and that builds from there it's strength and careful aim.

The dinosaur model

It's the old school election campaign. The core is the candidate, his ideas, his projects.

It's just about travelling around the country , talking everywhere and being frequently in the media. In love with his own speech, the candidate believes that repeating it everywhere is enough to get the people to vote for him.

And for the publicity, there's always a friend or comrade that knows a little about that. And it's simple anyway, just making the candidate seen and heard. Only the boldests put some wit to make it sound better.

The technocratic model

It's an updated political campaign that deliberately tries to put up to date. The core is the emission of the message, it's technical quality, even it's perfection.

Publicity made by professionals, exceptional camera work, the best presenters, pure aetheticism. And an impeccable candidate, with the right suit, the right tie, the right smile. This is the reign of shapes and good taste.

The ads flirt with art, and can even open doors in advertising festivals.

The consultant model

It's a campaign based on the political consultant. The key is his experience, his theories, his personal preferences. They use the same little book in each and very campaign.

Some of them go for possitive campaigns full of proposals. Others choose the hard attack and the negative
campaign. But all of them with their little book, their own manual.

Sometimes the result is good, and sometimes not. It depends on how brilliant he is and what election we are talking about.

The voter model

It's an election campaign based on the political psychology of the voter. The core in this campaign is not the candidate or the delight of the message. The core is on the one recieving the message, on the citizen that is going to vote, on the complex territory of his psychology.

The mind is a battlefield. And that's where we have to work.

Effective election signs

2010-08-25T15:55:00.001-07:00

5 seconds. One name, one idea. Simple shape. Shocking color. End of the 5 seconds.

The first battle on the election campaign it's on the thoroughfare. And for the signs to be effective you must have some basic rules in mind:

1. The point of the election signs is for the voter to know, remember and recognize the name of the candidate and the position he's running for. It's that simple: the fight for notoriety. It seems obvious but it has to be said: a sign does not persuade or convince a voter. So you can't ask for more than that recognition function.

2. Secondary objectives that don't hinder the main one: making a first positive impression towards the candidate, giving just with his presence the ideas of vitality, movement and strength, and opening the voters mind to future communication impacts.

3. The location of the signs is decisive for their success. They have to be seen by the public their are made for. They have to be placed at points with large public circulation, where people have to go by on their way to work or to their homes or in persons or vehicles that move in front of people.

4. Choosing in each case the right format: billboards, painted walls, signs on poles, posters on walls, signs on house's yards, doors and windows, banners, signs on bus stops and metro stations, big signs on the roads, signs on buses, stickers, other merchandising...

5. The key of the design has to be on the political psychology of the voter. How does he see the signs? They only have a few seconds to notice the sign, he's moving while he sees it and has multiple attention points at that time. Those are the conditions in which we have to achieve our goal.

6. Simplicity. Few words, no more than 5 or 6, almost a visual telegram. Typography of easy legibility, especially form a distance. Sharp, clear and highly contrasted colors. Simple backgrounds.

7. The battle on the thoroughfare is short. In no time people get tired of the signs and don't even know which is which anymore. That's why it's not a long series of skirmishes that last the whole election campaign. It's a lightning war. Then the fight continues on other means of communication.

Communication crisis on Aznar’s government

2010-08-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

The now former President Aznar, his government team and his communication cabinet lost the spanish elections because they didn’t know how to manage the communication in a major crisis.

10 – M

On March 10^th, 2004, the Popular party won the elections and Mariano Rajoy was Aznar’s obvious successor. Everyone in Spain knew it (or almost everyone). The polls verified it. Reliable political analysts assured it.

There was only one question, and that was the posibility of the Popular Party losing the absolute majority.

That was the fact that reality was going to reveal, but just that. The Popular party was going to win, with or without absolute majority, but it was going to win.

It’s true that the government has sailed some turbulent waters: the Prestige disaster, the involvment in the war in Irak, the fight against ETA, the basque nationalism, the Ibarretxe Plan and Rajoy’s poor campaign, among other difficulties.

But the ship was entering the port with a good structure. The government wins.

11 – M

The killing on March 11th, besides the human tragedy that entails, constituted the worst communication crisis for this government. A crucial, a high risk moment with high impact in the public opinion.

The first rule in a communication crisis, the very first one, is to inform quickly and truthfully. To inform telling the truth without shades. In this situations, only the hard truth can save you. And any detour ruins you.

(I think I can hear the criticism from some politicians used to ‘handle’ the information “no, it’s not like that, that’s a naive point of view, politicians can be more realistic, sometimes you have to do things that...” anyway...)

I insist, in this critical moments the only thing that can save you is the truth. Because of a simple fact, the citizen is more informed now than ever, has new sources of information, doesn’t really trust in governments, is skeptical and wants to have his own opinion.

In this particular case, the spanish citizens have already seen through the media many ETA attacks and islamic terrorism too. They already know the differences because T.V. has shown them, has put them

into their brains and through their eyes, those that people think that don’t lie (but that would be a topic for another article, to prove if eyes lies or not).

So the spanish people see the images of Atocha and their brains immediately processes the information, comparing lots of different images that already has stored. On the ‘Attacks’ file of his brain hard disk he has images of ETA attacks, Al Qaeda attacks, Hamas attacks, etc.

And the data processor compares, classifies, looks for differences and similarities. And the final product is, at least, the suspicion of islamic responsability.

The rest is easy to understand. The same citizen listens to his leaders and gets right away that they deny any islamic participation. That’s when the distrust, the feeling that he’s being lied to, that someone is hiding something, begins.

The golden rule is that you can’t go directly against the public perception, because the collision is fatal. And Aznar’s government didn’t consider this.

The truth is that the government had only one way, just one: to inform in real time all the facts, even when they could lead to contradictory hypothesis.

What would have been the consequences?

First, it could have been a certain political cost related to the war in Irak, but that would have been absorbed by the positive effect of the government telling the truth, being reliable and trustworthy.

And in critic situations is basic to generate trust and credibility. That’s the place to start, that’s the solid rock to build on.

Could the Popular Party’s government have acted this way, or maybe their political and ideological conditionings (and even their own fears) would inevitably blind them?

Could they have chosen an open communication with some doubts and even some contradictions, or they could never visualize other comunication than a closed one, with all the apparent truth?

Was the mistake due to some manipulative attempt or the logic consequence of an hegemonic mental diagram in the government?

There are the main questions.

Communication in the White House

2010-08-25T15:53:00.001-07:00

In fiction, as in real life, political communication plays a crucial role in the USA’s government. The White House is a key example of this.

The West Wing is the name of a successful T.V. show, and it’s also the name of the White House’s West Wing, and that’s where the President of the United States works everyday. In both cases is specially interesting to be on the trail of the government’s communication.

A cult tv show

Some shows became cult tv shows to their fans. They stop being just an entertainment and they enter a different category, a superior one without any doubt. The viewer becames something that goes beyond just watching T.V.: they feel part of the world created by the show and they incorporate the show to their lives. Think about Star Trek or The X Files for example. Well, The West Wing is one of them.

It has it’s own official (and an unofficial) website, countless web pages created by the fans, thousands of articles analizing it, several books about the show, every season available on DVD, a long list of awards and many facts surrounding the show that give an aura of ‘legend’ to it.

The show aired from 1999 to it’s last season in 2006. The West Wing tells the daily events that the President and his staff live in the White House, an everyday life that is built on little things, but with national and international affairs.

The main characters are the Democratic President Josiah Bartlet (played brilliantly by Martin Sheen), the Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, the Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, the Comunications Director Toby Ziegler, the Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn and the Press Secretary C.J. Cregg.

Through the years, Sam drifts apart to fight for a political position in California, Leo has a heart attack and leaves his job but continues as an advisor, C.J. becames the new Chief of Staff and other relevant characters appear.

The place where everything happens is the West Wing of the White House. This is a must-see for anyone that works in politics, it should even be mandatory. It’s fiction, of course, but a very smart and very well done one, that teaches and helps you think. The cameras move quickly through the halls and offices of the West Wing, following the government employee’s agitated rhythm of work, showing their practic and executive meetings, their process of decision making, their fast dialogues and also their fears, doubts and mistakes.

It’s a cult tv show and as such is totally addictive, after a few episodes you won’t be able to leave it. Those interested in how a government communicates will find in the West Wing several topics, which are not completely discussed but are very helpful to understand them. For example:

The complexity and the shades on the preparation of the presidential speeches (which Sam does for several years under Toby’s supervision)
The omnipresent press conferences (that CJ gives as Press Secretary, dealing several times a day with a room full of journalists that want to know more than what she’s willing to tell)
The role of public opinion on the definition of a communication policy
The way the government employees and the journalists relate both professionally and personally
The structure and how a communication cabinet works (in this case Toby, Sam, CJ and their assistants)
The complex coordination between the communication staff and the strictly political staff
The chiaroscuros of the inner communication, and the cooperation and competition between the employees
The hard balance between institutional communication and the commander in chief’s political plan
The integration of communication as a fundamental part of the government’s programs

And on top of that, the show helps you think about the distance between desires and reality with regards to governments and about the importance on the human factor in political decisions.

A government’s place

Let’s go from fiction to reality, to the way the White House’s West Wing actually works. Let’s see how is the place where the US’s government works. The White House’s West Wing.

Let’s see some references to know where the offices of the main characters of the White House’s daily life are.

As we can see in the plan, the President’s office is on the first floor, along with the Oval Office, the President’s personal secretary and the cabinet’s conference room. Some of the most important offices in the first floor belong (2004) to the following staff members (look for the numbers on the plan):

3. Scott McClellan, Press secretary. He’s the face of the government and the President’s spokesperson

7. Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. She’s a professor of political studies at Stanford University and one of the most influential women in the world.

8. Richard Cheney, Vice-President. Probably the strong-man in Bush’s administration and one of the most powerful vice-presidents in the histoy of the US.

12. Andrew Card Jr., Chief of Staff. His job is to stablish a simple agenda, to solidify the ideological ground, to choose and direct a loyal and competent staff, to keep the White House focused on it’s tasks and to manage times and duties.

13. Dan Barlett, Communications Director. This job means the responsability of the government’s political communication, from planning to implementing. He also supervises the Press Office and everything related to communication.

14. Michael Gerson, Speechwriter. He has 6 writers, 2 researchers and 2 people to check and confirm facts that work for him.

19. Suzy DeFrancis, Deputy Communications Director.

24. Karl Rove, Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff. He’s the grey brain in the government, the President’s direct and personal political advisor. His job is to deeply and sistematically analyze the political reality and to suggest the actions from there.

In terms of salary, the President earns about US$400.000 a year, the Vice-President US$180.000 and the most important collaborators US$150.000 each.

As you can see, the political advisors and the communication specialists play a decisive role in the US government’s life. They are far from that old idea (still defended by some) of the government working on one side and the later communication of that work. On the contrary, if we look at the White House’s plan, if we study who’s in the main offices and what are their jobs, then we understand that communication is an essential part of the government.

To govern is a complex task that involves different levels: evaluation, planning, execution, communication and, again, evaluation. And this is valid for the most powerful government in the world, and for the littlest municipal one.

Some politicians get it, some don’t, but the world tendency is irreversible. And communication specialists more and more have strategic positions.

The Black Box in politics

2010-08-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

A plane crashes.

Everyone wants to know what happened. There are many curious, but of course not all of them are the same or look the same. Actually, that group is divided in 2: the naives on one side, and the experts on the other (i don't know if i should say this, but the first group is a whole crowd, and the others are just a few, like everything in life).

The naives are like a bug swarm, usually noisy, credulous, slightly morbid and with a tendency to give themselves early answers (no offense).

Experts, on the other hand, are more like lonely bugs, they look where no one does and they inquire deeper and with some skepticism. Of course, they usually find more complex explanations.

(I'm hearing voices, many readers are asking themselves what politics have to do with all this plane crash introduction... anyway, patience, keep reading please).

The naives (let's call them group NAI) jump quickly into conclusions.

The plane fell because of the storm, i saw the weather forecast myself it was obviously going to happen. No, actually it crashed because the pilot drunk to much, you know? I have a friend that knew him. No way! The plane was brought down by a missile, or because of a defect of the plane, because it ran out of fuel, because of a shooting in the cabine...

The nice lady with the curlers sweeps her porch while she explains to her neighbour the absolute truth about the accident.

The experts, let's call them group EX, turn a deaf ear and look for the black box. The black box! There's the secret!

You have to find the black box and then figure out what's on the tape from the last minutes of the plane to know why it crashed. This way, not only you can explain what happened, but you can also see what to do to avoid it from happening again.

(ATTENTION: here's where political psychology enters the room)

The exact same thing happens in politics.

Where's the explanation to every election succes and every election defeat? Which is the ultimate cause for leaderships or popularity falls? Where does approval and rejection towards a candidate, a political party or a government nest?

There is only one answer: in the human brain.

The brain is the black box!

(I hear a a murmur form the NAIs, a little upset because they have much simpler explanations: money, the media, the government's agenda, the economy...)

It's there, in the dark territory of the human brain where everything happens. If we could open it, enlighten and study it in detail, then we'd have a deadly weapon to win elections, build leaderships and protect governments.

(The EXs listen, reserving their judgement and developing their ideas)

Politicians don't know it yet, but political psychology has been studying for decades what happens in the brain regarding the voting behavior. And you can only say it in a low voice, but the truth is that specialists have come a long way, more than anyone can imagine. Much more.

That's why many, many elections nowadays are resolved in a different scenario from what the newspapers say.

The core of this secret scene is the confrontation between some EXs, with the secret knowledge about black boxes, against innumerable NAIs, happy and trusting in the beauty of colorful little mirrors.

Guess who wins?