Letting Daylight in on 'Magic'

The presidential election campaign in the United States is suffocating. You can't escape it anywhere, even when on vacation outside the US. Everyone is absorbed in it, I find. They want to talk about it; they want to watch CNN coverage of it nonstop. Now, for the issues we discuss in this blog the campaign is a good thing, but it is also a bad thing.

The presidential campaign is a good thing because it showcases some of the dynamics that we seek to draw attention to here. First, it shows the importance of public opinion in governance. In a sense, the entire campaign can be seen as an attempt to shape public opinion in rival directions by two well-funded campaigns. Second, the campaign shows how agenda-setting occurs, as rival parties seek to put certain issues on the public agenda and kick others off it. Third, it also shows the relative importance of public opinion and politics in the policy-making process. The battle that has been joined between the rival armies will have important consequences for policy making in the US in the next four years. The process demonstrates the point that governance reform is not a mere technocratic exercise; it involves the combination of political will and public will. And both public opinion and politics have a decisive impact.

But the presidential campaign is also a bad thing in at least one important respect. The news media - and the attentive public - are focusing on the techniques of political communication being used by the rival campaigns. The so-called 'black arts' of spin, news management, issue-management, candidate-packaging, stage-management, soundbite-crafting and so on are being pointed out, discussed and analyzed. Political communication consultants dominate news analysis. They gleefully point out the tricks being used by both sides. Rival supporters are critiquing the campaign techniques of the two presidential candidates, often making angry suggestions of their own.

There are at least two problems with all this. First, we are witnessing the reinforcement of the view that communication is all about the skilled manipulation of public opinion. Not only is that flat wrong, it exaggerates what a campaign, any campaign, can actually accomplish when it comes to changing public opinion on anything. Adults are not that easy to sway, especially where their basic beliefs and values are involved, and these are the powerful drivers of their opinions. Second, all the focus on campaign techniques only serves to breed cynicism in the electorate. For you no longer know when to believe what a politician is saying. What is calculation and what is candor? How do  you know these days? As Walter Bagehot famously said of  the British monarchy: 'We must not let daylight in upon the magic.' Why? This: the more of the kitchen you see the less the chef impresses you with his creation.

So long!

Photo Credit: Flickr User TJ Ryan