Parties, Governments and Pollsters

A New Form of Patronage

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6234816
AutoresMerrick Peisley, Ian Ward (0000-0002-0566-1479), I M Ward (0000-0001-8398-4911)
Año2001
Volumen36
Número3
Páginas553-565
Fecha de publicación2001-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAustralian Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1036-1146 • E-ISSN: 1363-030X
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10361140120100712
OpenAlexW1974630794
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas11

In its first term, the Howard government hired Australasian Research Strategies (ARS), headed by pollster Mark Textor, to conduct market research for several Commonwealth departments and agencies. This was, the Labor Opposition claimed, a case of the Liberals handing jobs to their 'mates'. Textor played a key role in the Liberals' 1996 and 1998 federal election campaigns. However, Labor's attack rings hollow since in the 1980s the Hawke government similarly contracted Rod Cameron's ANOP to conduct opinion research for Commonwealth departments and agencies. At the time Cameron was Labor's strategic pollster and centrally involved in planning Labor election campaigns. On both sides of Australian politics, governments have begun to channel patronage towards their party's pollsters. In this research note, we suggest that this development cannot be explained as 'jobs for the boys'. Instead, this new form of patronage has its roots in the vital role that pollsters now play in guiding election campaigns, and in the commercial reality that Australian politics provides too little work to sustain specialist political pollsters. Parties in government now appear to utilise incumbency to sustain an ongoing relationship with the commercial polling organisations like ANOP and ARS to whom they will entrust much of the planning of their campaign for re-election

Coalition government · Commonwealth · Federal election · Government (linguistics · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics