Where you lead we will follow : A longitudinal study of strategic political communication in election campaigning

The different ways in which political parties handle environmental changes and challenges they are faced with is often analyzed as a process of adaption where political parties are under the pressure to adapt in order to keep up with developments because it can render strategic advantages. However, political parties do not operate in a vacuum and have to relate to meso and micro environmental factors as well. Nevertheless, there is little research that focuses on if and how party level and inter-party level factors influence the development of strategic political communication. The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of party agency and inter-party influence for the development of strategic political communication in election campaigning. The empirical material of this study covers the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 Swedish national election campaigns.