By Alex Marland, Guest Blog
Problem or opportunity? Depending on how you look at it, the alarming decline in voter turnout is either cause for serious worry about the lack of citizen engagement in government, or it is a chance to get political parties and bureaucracies to wake up to the need to meaningfully involve the public in governance. Either way, there’s a good case to be made that democracy in Canada could benefit from some marketing.
Samara’s recent report into the state of democracy in Canada, “The Real Outsiders: Politically Disengaged Views on Politics and Democracy,” suggests that the time has come for politicians to do things differently. Years ago it was enough to simply offer democracy, because people didn’t take it for granted and inherently felt that it was important to get involved. Some people still feel a democratic duty to vote, but that seems to be on the decline. Likewise, at one time there was so much demand for the Model T automobile that Ford could offer it in any colour – as long as that colour was black. But eventually consumers wanted more. Nowadays car companies aggressively respond to research about what people want and promote a variety of innovative products in response to consumer preferences. Politicians who care about democracy can learn from this, because Canadians want more.
The Samara report presents a number of challenges that marketing could address. We should be clear what marketing is, and what it is not, because after all the concept of ‘political marketing’ blends two concepts that are misunderstood and popularly maligned. Marketing is not the same as advertising, sales, spin or hype. It’s much more sophisticated and more in tune with public demands than that. Rather, marketing uses research to inform the development or adjustment of a product or service, and the targeted communication of that product or service, in a manner that is responsive to citizens’ expressed needs and wants. Listening to consumers and responding by offering cars with better gasoline mileage, or which don’t use gas at all, is a good example of what can result from embracing a marketing philosophy.
In light of the research findings in “The Real Outsiders,” here’s a few things that a marketing point of view can convey to Canadian policy makers and political parties about how to fix democracy in our country.
1. Improve the image of Canadian politics: Democracy as a product is misunderstood. Increase Canadians’ awareness that politics can be a noble profession. Counter daily media negativity with an ongoing public information campaign that turns boring policy-making into important work that has more pizzazz than is popularly recognized. Educate people about how a policy idea becomes reality.
2. Generate an interest in becoming involved in politics: Democracy as a concept is disconnected with democracy in practice. Increase the public’s awareness of ways to get engaged and the meaningful impact that Canadians can have on each other and society. Stimulate a desire to participate and nurture pride in political communitarianism; show people how they can effect change; make interacting with government less intimidating; communicate successes; and develop public understanding that politics involves compromise.
3. Actively reach out to the disengaged: Democracy as a service has room for improvement. Citizens need better personal experiences with government and politics to avoid becoming outsiders. A friendly hand needs to be extended to those who are already turned off, tuned out and who have dropped out. Challenge insiders to reach out to outsiders, and to act as mentors, as a way to get people participating by helping each other and embracing the spirit of democracy.
These are just some of many ideas that a political marketing approach to the problem—or, depending on your point of view, opportunity—of engaging the disengaged. Canadian democracy as we know it appears to be on the tail end of the product life cycle: it has matured and has begun a steep decline. There is no magic wand; what’s broken must be fixed. Fortunately, a spirit of responsiveness to research like Samara’s latest report will go a long way towards embracing the marketing principles that can be used to rethink how democracy does business in Canada.
Alex Marland is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Political Science at Memorial University, and member of Samara's Academic Advisory Team. He was the lead editor of Political Marketing in Canada (UBC Press, 2012) and has published about electioneering in Canada and about politics in Newfoundland and Labrador. He has also worked in the public, private and political sectors in capacities that exposed him to the practice of media relations, opinion research and governance.