Abstract
ABSTRACT The Internet is changing the technological context of election campaigns in dramatic ways. The question of the larger impact of this development on the structures and strategies of election campaigns has stimulated two competing hypotheses. The orthodox view perceives the new medium as facilitating centralized election campaigns that allow party headquarters to target and mobilize groups of voters in more efficient and direct ways. A revisionist view stresses the Internet as a means for individual constituency candidates running candidate-centered campaigns at the local level. From this perspective, the Internet has a decentralizing effect on the structure of election campaigns. This article tests both hypotheses on the basis of the German Candidate Study 2005. It looks in particular at the impact of the electoral context on the style of constituency candidates' online campaigns in the German Federal Elections of 2005.
Published Version
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