US presidential race: Election campaign and the staging of politics (November 2008)

"Yes we can! Yes we can!" The rhythmic staccato of these three words echoing through a summer eve in Berlin on June 24th, 2008, ringing in the night air again and again. In excess of 200,000 people gathered around Berlin’s winged victory column, the Siegessäule, to hear democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama deliver a foreign policy speech. The candidate was not treated to silent rapt attention, but was greeted by the overwhelmingly youthful crowd like a conquering rock star on a rare visit to Germany.

Candidate Obama’s Berlin visit was, more than anything, a staged political show, something politicians like to use not only for election campaigns. Political issues are often only truly conveyed through use of symbols and symbolic action, simplifying issues that are otherwise complex, compacting the facts and then imparting them visually or emotionally.

This edition of the "Research Special" series focuses on the staging of political issues, with the increasing personalization of politics and election campaigns and politics as presented in the media. Six chapters divided according to topic present literature and research on this subject. The last chapter offers a collection of references which help to illuminate election campaigns and, with respect to the worldwide political significance of the US presidential elections, on the staging of politics in the USA.

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