Does Digital Campaigning Make a Difference for Individual Candidates in an Open List Proportional Representation System? The Case of the 2019 Election in Belgium
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6344280 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gunther Vanden Eynde (0000-0002-6364-8598, KU Leuven, corresponding author), Bart Maddens (0000-0001-6935-2571, KU Leuven) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1410-1430 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00323217231179189 |
| OpenAlex | W4380077408 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 56 |
This article looks at the equalization/normalization problem through the lens of campaign spending and investigates the effect of expenses for digital tools on the electoral result of individual candidates in an open list proportional representation system. A multilevel analysis of the campaign expenses of 1253 serious contenders in the Belgian 2019 concurrent federal, regional, and European elections shows that the investment in both owned Web 1.0 media and paid Web 2.0 media does not have an effect on electoral performance. Investing in traditional tools, by contrast, does have a significant positive effect. While most candidates use digital tools, they invest only a small part of their budget in these, which may explain the absence of a digital expense effect. These findings put the use of digital campaigning in perspective, showing that the effect of paid online tools should not be overestimated, and that the role of traditional campaigning is still dominant
Business · Democracy · Digital media · Economics · Investment (military · Normalization (sociology · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Proportional representation · Representation (politics · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Influence and Politics · Social Media and Politics
Artists' roles and digital strategies in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election
Transformative islamic education as a resource for religious education in the anthropocene
Linking individual electoral performance to the composition of elected bodies
Legislative Quotas and the Gender Gap in Campaign Finance
Does Social Media Level the Political Field or Reinforce Existing Inequalities? Cartographies of the 2022 Brazilian Election
Politics as Usual
Digital Politics in Western Democracies
Social Media, Parties, and Political Inequalities
The personalization of mediated political communication
Using a Personality-Profiling Algorithm to Investigate Political Microtargeting
Centralized personalization at the expense of decentralized personalization. The decline of preferential voting in Belgium (2003–2014)
Politics As Usual, or Politics Unusual? Position Taking and Dialogue on Campaign Websites in the 2002 U.S. Elections
Cyber-Campaigning in Denmark
Beyond the Base? Political Parties, Citizen Activists, and Digital Media Use in the 2009 German Federal Election Campaign
Is Web 2.0 Providing a Voice for Outsiders? A Comparison of Personal Web Site and Social Media Use by Candidates at the 2010 UK General Election
Explaining digital campaign expenses
Poland’s 2011 Online Election Campaign
The role of gender in online campaigning
Scientific and subversive
An outsider's medium? The European elections and UK party competition on the internet
Party Competition on the Internet in the United States and Britain
The impact of campaign expenditures on political competition in the French legislative elections of 1993
Career Patterns in Multilevel States
Influence of ‘Cognitive Sophistication’ on Ballot Layout Effects
Explaining the number of preferential votes for women in an open-list PR system
For a Few Euros More
In varietate concordia?! Political parties’ digital political marketing in the 2019 European Parliament election campaign
Effects of Campaign Spending in an Open List PR System
Incumbents and Challengers on a Level Playing Field
Normalising or Equalising Party Competition? Assessing the Impact of the Web on Election Campaigning
Incumbent and Challenger Campaign Spending Effects in Proportional Electoral Systems
Do Online Election Campaigns Win Votes? The 2007 Australian “YouTube” Election
Getting Personal? The Impact of Social Media on Preferential Voting
Centralized or decentralized personalization? Measuring intra-party competition in open and flexible list PR systems
Party nomination strategies in flexible-list systems
Preaching to the Converted
Effect of Local Ties On Electoral Success and Parliamentary Behaviour
Keeping Up with the Murphys? Candidate Cyber-campaigning in the 2007 Irish General Election
Preference vote and intra-party competition in open list PR systems
Who wins preference votes? An analysis of party loyalty, ideology, and accountability to voters
A Fair Day’s Wage for a Fair Day’s Work’? Exploring the connection between the parliamentary work of MPs and their electoral support
The Effect of Municipality Size and Local Office on the Electoral Success of Belgian/Flemish Election Candidates
Online versus offline
Salvation for the Spendthrift Incumbent
"Rebuttal to Jacobson's "New Evidence for Old Arguments
The Effects of Campaign Spending in House Elections
Political Campaigns and Social Media
Political communication in a high-choice media environment
Is electoral intraparty competition more intense in urban areas
Voting for locals
Office effects and campaign spending in a semi-open list PR system
How do candidates spend their money? Objects of campaign spending and the effectiveness of diversification
Winning the Local Vote
Explaining Senate Election Outcomes
The Effects of Campaign Spending in Congressional Elections
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |