Politics speaks about who gets hold of what, when and how. It settles contestation on material goods distribution. But modern definitions claim politics as a focus on identity, culture and material resources.
Politics is the conflict of conceptions where participants try to manipulate the narrative. They use in-depth beliefs and values over objective self-interest. A debate was initiated surrounding the legalization of political protest with its functions and dysfunctions.
Issues that persist in political activism debates
Current research reveals that the voters’ access to information via debates can increase their knowledge and participation. But, there are challenges to this situation for which you may seek My assignment help.
The low media coverage and poor democratic structures reduce access to political information. Hence, voters carry limited knowledge about their candidates when they vote for them. Despite election debates toward voter deliberation, a persisting knowledge gap remains on the voter’s decisions.
The post-debate effects of various broadcasts on public voters’ knowledge
- Knowledge of the voters – Once the debate is over, voters attain increased awareness about their candidates, policies and general political knowledge.
- Preferences of the voters – Voters mentioned that these debates kept them updated and affected their choices at the ballot box. Such arguments increase a candidate’s general perception. They favoured these options for better-quality contestants with similar policy priorities. Voters with strong partisan tendencies witnessed a moderate impact.
- Performance of the politicians – In most cases, the elected Members of Parliament that participated in the debate contributed two-and-a-half times more to their activities. Some of their actions included conducting public meetings, paying more community visits and spending after development projects.
Strengthening democracy with candidate debates – fact or fiction?
Political debates often form a support structure for campaigning tactics. But, there is limited evidence about its effect on the general public. Therefore, a study was conducted to assess the impact of political information over debates on voter behaviours, campaign expenditure and the politicians’ performances.
More than 60 nations in the world witness the performance of candidate debates. In addition, international democracy-promotion organizations fund such discussions in developing countries to improve democracy.
Watching debates contributes to improved political knowledge, better policy alignment, and vote shares for better candidates. Moreover, post-debate, the politicians can invest further in their constituencies.
Debates can offer valuable information about politicians’ character and policy standards in developing democracies. However, such candidate debates do not provide proof of their impact on the voters’ behaviour and priorities for democracy.
Issues with the policy
Modern-day democracies consider political debates as a core contributor to campaigning tactics. These debates expose information on the quality of the candidates and the policies they implement.
Prior development of public records regarding the pre-election commitments can increase the elected officials’ accountability. In addition, publicizing debates in developing nations, where voters possess limited information on their candidates, can have profound electoral outcomes.
However, there remains limited evidence on the actual effect of these debates on voter behaviour. Thus, experts researched to verify whether debates could affect real-time voting behaviour. The cues considered in this experiment were the voter’s knowledge and behaviour and the politician’s behaviour. The investigation also assessed the impact of information on voters to switch their dependence from ethnicity to policy.
Evaluation context
Sierra Leone witnessed past voting patterns on pre-existing party affiliations and ethnic backgrounds. Each MP (Member of Parliament) represents about 40,000 residents in their national legislature among 112 Parliamentary constituencies.
Efforts toward sustainable peacekeeping through dialogue and civic engagement achieves over programs conducted by a nonpartisan civil society and SFGC (Search For Common Ground).
Parliamentary elections facilitated SFCG with an opportunity to test new electoral programs in 2012. This chance increased clarity, voters’ knowledge of their candidates and interaction between MPs and voters.
Intervention Details
Researchers partnered with the SFCG to assess the dissemination of political information over debates. They also investigated its impact on the voter’s knowledge, attitude, campaigning expenses and the politicians’ performance.
SFGC followed a standardized format to organize and film a debate between the leading candidates. Half of the participants in the constituencies were chosen at random.
Once the debate was over, the government’s expert panel, civil society representatives and the debate audience determined its debate winner under separate instances.
The filming of the debates took place around 224 polling centres spread across 14 constituencies. Among them, about 112 involved random selection in hosting the public screenings of the debate video. These screenings took place among 19,000 viewers between one to five weeks pre-election.
A survey was conducted on the voters before and after the screening. The inspection identified the change in their perception, knowledge and intention to vote for their candidates.
The research team revealed the debates to each of those voters. They were divided into five separate groups to test how various information on personal characteristics, persuasive speeches or policy positions altered their decisions. These 5 groups were –
- Full debate – 400 participants used a hand-held device to watch the full debate video.
- Get-to-know-you only – 400 people spoke informally about their interests and hobbies while watching the video clip of these candidates.
- Radio report – 400 people listened to the leading policy positions’ journalistic summary. The candidates that participated in the debates articulated that summary.
- Surveyed comparison – A pre-election survey included about 600 people who were not exposed to any visual media. They were divided into 1-3 groups.
- Pure comparison – The remaining voters did not view any media, so the research team did not survey them till post-Election Day.
Once Election Day was over, the researchers conducted exit polls among random voters. Finally, they measured the voting outcomes with the official voting records from the Election Commission and the polls.
Policy Lessons from the Final Results
Researchers noticed that the voters’ exposure to the debates transformed their political knowledge and voting behaviour. Those who took part in the debates increased their expenses to support the campaign. The costings spread among the debate screening communities. Even politicians, once they entered office, increased their engagement and investment in their constituencies.
- Knowledge of the voters – Once the voters participated in the public debate screenings, they witnessed adequate improvements in their knowledge of voting, general politics, particular candidates and their policy conditions.
- Voting options – The public’s exposure to the debate screening improved the policy alignment. It matched the chosen candidate with the reported policy position of the voter. As a result, there were 9% more chances for a debate viewer to vote for a candidate who shared similar priorities with them. Once the voters watched them speak, they also realigned their views to fit with their preferred candidate.
- Opportunities for high-quality candidates – Some voters preferred voting for high-quality candidates. Against the comparison group, there was a 5-per cent-point increase in the debate winner’s vote. Once the debate winner hails from the opponent party, a partial cause of this increase contributed to voters who interchanged their votes throughout ethnic party lines. But those voters who were historically aligned with the debate winner’s party weren’t affected by the screening.
The three treatments are –
- The debate was most effective over the voter’s policy alignment with the favoured candidate and vote choice. In addition, it points out the critical role of personality in voter persuasion.
- Radio report improved political knowledge and was influential in building knowledge and viewing the debate; whereas
- The get-to-know-you video was only half-effective.
The expenditure behind the campaign
Those communities that saw the debate witnessed increased spending behind the campaign against the group. In addition, the elected candidate kept offering valuable gifts to their voters, and they visited their voters’ communities more than other communities.
The elected officials’ performances
Those MPs who took part in the debates spent 2.5 times more money after their constituency on verifiable development expenditures. Such spending generated a corresponding average gain of USD 6000 for every constituency. The base value spent on comparison constituencies was USD 4,070. The amount stood close to the net USD 11,000, equivalent to the value available to MPs.
The MPs increased their community visits by 4.2 against the 2.9 value in the comparison group. They also help 2.1 public meetings contrasting the comparison group. In addition, the MP’s constituents that participated in those debates praised their MPs on a promotional basis throughout the constituency.
But, those MPs who participated in those debates had fewer chances to promote their earlier ranking sectors as their top priority. Likewise, they did not show any active participation in the Parliament.
Policy Implications
Public declaration of candidate debates can improve the political knowledge of the voters. It can affect their vote on Election Day. These debates can also inspire politicians to increase their investments in their constituencies during and after the election.
Political activism or debating can increase a voter’s knowledge and save money. One can also telecast such debates over television with decreased dissemination expenses.
Conclusion
Political activism or debating can educate the masses on political matters. It also teaches them how their elected leaders can make a difference in their community. Political debates also reflect the goals and characters of their elected leaders.
Author Bio
Jacob Oswald is a political fanatic and a passionate social worker in Glasgow, a populous city in Scotland. He works with Myassignmenthelp.com and offers paper help to his students who struggle with their debates.
Arman Ali, respects both business and technology. He enjoys writing about new business and technical developments. He has previously written content for numerous SaaS and IT organizations. He also enjoys reading about emerging technical trends and advances.
