120 Years of Swedish Election Campaigns: A Story of the Rise and Decline of Political Parties and the Emergence of the Mass Media as Power Brokers

Abstract

A framework for descriptive analysis of election campaigns is suggested, emphasizing the parties' use of direct (personal) and indirect (media) channels for voter communication. The direct campaign channels had their heyday during the 1920s and 1930s. Since the 1940s radio and television have dominated the scene. However, the parties maintained control over opinion formation until the breakthrough of an assertive and independent political journalism at the end of the 1960s.