Abstract

At the heart of any discussion about persuasion and mobilization efforts by parties and candidates is the extent to which campaigns have any significant electoral impact at all. A perusal of the literature on voting behavior and turnout in this volume, for example, could lead one to the conclusion that campaigns are, in fact, little more than a ritual with negligible impact on the outcome of an election. This might seem a bizarre claim – after all, parties and candidates expend a great deal of time, energy and money on campaigning. If they had so little effect, why would they bother? Yet, in any examination of campaign effects, we must first ask two questions: why might campaigns (not) matter? And, will campaigns always be equally (in)effective?