Romania's Total War: How Political Marketing Strategies Work in a Democratization Process

Abstract

Political marketing needs to consider specific factors when dealing with a democratization process such in the Romanian and Eastern European case. The emergence of democratic institutions and practices creates an amalgamated and diverse context for political marketing strategies. Different historical stages of communication, marketing, and elections practice have produced after 1989 a landscape where it is easy to confuse political marketing orientations of political parties. An investigation is carried on how political organizations have addressed marketing instruments and how the need to survive and achieve power has altered the meaning of what we call political marketing exchange.