Timeline for Why do politicians create more advertising badmouthing their opponents, rather than promoting themselves?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 14, 2020 at 4:13 | comment | added | jamesqf | @James_pic: Sure, but that is custom, not something required by law. Just as no US President prior to FDR broke the 2-term limit custom set by George Washington. | |
| Oct 13, 2020 at 14:57 | comment | added | James_pic | Even in the UK, whilst defeated prime ministers do automatically revert to being ordinary MPs, most step down from their seats soon after defeat. Theresa May is an exception to this, but Cameron, Brown, Blair and Major all left parliament soon after, if I recall. | |
| Oct 13, 2020 at 8:33 | comment | added | gerrit | @jamesqf That differs per country and is not generally true in European parliamentary systems. In the UK defeated prime ministers often go back to being an MP, but in The Netherlands, defeated prime ministers almost always retire from politics. I'm not sure about other countries. | |
| Oct 12, 2020 at 21:26 | comment | added | Kevin | I think you do see strategy #2 used successfully from time to time, usually when the incumbent is unpopular but either not on the ballot (e.g. Obama vs. McCain) or too small-c-conservative for overt vilification to make logical sense (e.g. Clinton vs. Bush). | |
| Oct 12, 2020 at 17:09 | comment | added | jamesqf | @gerrit: In the US, you have a defeated or term-limited President, who almost always retires from political life, whereas in the parlimentary system the Prime Minister of the defeated party just goes back to being an ordinary MP. (If they were not defeated in their run for their individual seat, of course.) Although they may resign from party leadership, they don't have to. And of course the party in power may win the election, so the PM stays in power. | |
| Oct 12, 2020 at 13:34 | comment | added | gerrit | @MSalters True. I was rather thinking of U.S. Presidents, which are often re-elected, vs. governments in European parliamentary systems, which are often voted out. Although presidential systems differ from parliamentary systems, in both cases you have a government which faces voters defending its actions of the past 4-5 years. | |
| Oct 12, 2020 at 10:54 | comment | added | MSalters | @gerrit: The notion of "incumbents" is typically tied to single-seat districts, typical of the Westminster FPTP system, or the two-seat states in the US Senate. Mainland Europe often has nation-wide PR with party lists. In such a context, an elected representative has no direct relation with a particular subgroup of voters. | |
| Oct 12, 2020 at 9:58 | comment | added | leftaroundabout | @gerrit even the European coalition goverments often get an “incumbent boost”. Well, at least the German ones; perhaps that's an outlier. | |
| Oct 12, 2020 at 2:01 | comment | added | jamesqf | @gerrit: Perhaps I don't know enough about European politics, but AFAIK a government can be voted out by flipping a handful of seats, much as the US House & Senate can change party majorities even though most of their members are regularly re-elected. It's perhaps less obvious in the US, since there are three different things (including the President) that can be held by one or the other party, elected at different times, so it's unlikely for then whole government to switch parties in an election. (And Biden is certainly more conservative than Sanders.) | |
| Oct 11, 2020 at 19:56 | comment | added | gerrit | incumbents tend to be elected — that is certainly not the case in most countries. The US is quite unique in that respect. In much of Europe, governments are voted out of power at every election, because the government is at the major disadvantage that they have to defend actual policies, whereas the opposition can run on criticism and promises. This is even more true in parliamentary systems where coalition governments are common. Your answer makes it sound like Biden presents himself as conservative, which I don't think is accurate. | |
| Oct 11, 2020 at 16:56 | history | answered | jamesqf | CC BY-SA 4.0 |