Voting Consuming Behaviour, Political communication campaigns and Ideological Clarity - a parallel review of academic/empirical evidence

Abstract

This paper combines the notions of consuming behaviour and ideological clarity in relation to the political Marketing and more specifically the production and consumption of political campaigns and examines the empirical evidence concerning the proposed topic, by focusing on some basic conceptual and methodological issues, as they are arising from previous research. Accordingly, earlier research has shown that visible political attitudes approximate electoral choice (i.e., actual votes), demonstrating that voters are able to give explanation concerning voting decisions. Other studies, though, have indicated that the attitudes of which we may not be aware, such as our implicit (e.g., subconscious) preferences, determine voting choice. Additionally, previous research was dealing with the campaigns effects and made attempts in measuring the impact of society and media upon electoral campaigns. In a similar manner, earlier studies, gave some directions in the notions of political marketing and voting decision making process. Accordingly, the paper highlights the gap that is presented in the sufficient interlink of those concepts. In the same manner, the paper reviews the methodological impact and the research paradigm of earlier work, in order to identify any possible research gap and limitations and to facilitate the ground for further research.