The Impact of Electoral Rule Change on Party Campaign Strategy

Abstract

In this study it is shown how party campaign strategies in three electoral campaigns in Hong Kong changed when the electoral system moved from a single-member plurality system to a proportional representation system. It is hypothesized that future party campaign strategies will change and follow a more capital-intensive and professionalized pattern, with less use of negative campaigns and less emphasis on personalities, local issues and constituency services. Empirical results show that although there was a general trend towards a more professionalized and capital-intensive campaign, the traditional labour-intensive means were more resilient than expected. Constituency services, personalized campaigns, local issues and negative campaigns still play an important part in campaigning under proportional representation. The limited nature of the elections and parameters that did not favour large parties led to single non-transferable-vote-like campaign behaviour. Unchanged voter expectations, stringent campaigning and financing laws, and the partial nature of the elections all prevented a complete switch to professionalization and capital-intensive campaigns.