TY - JOUR
T1 - Political Engagement Principles as the Basis for New Regional Self-Determination Processes in Europe
T2 - The Case of Catalonia
AU - Ordeix, Enric
AU - Ginesta, Xavier
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - The U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 signified a change on the paradigm of how the political parties deal with local communities. This means that grassroots techniques arose as a key factor for the triumph of Barack H. Obama. After the election, European political parties-even social movements-also adapted some strategies inspired by the U.S. presidential campaigns. The main objective of this article is to analyze how these grassroots techniques have been adapted in a specific scenario: the process of self-determination of Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain that claims to be an independent country after the failing of Estado de las Autonomías (state of autonomies) model. Our method is to explore the parameters that drove the Obama's first presidential campaign and how they have been applied into the self-determination campaign of Catalonia, such as the creation of local opinion platforms, media spin doctoring, social networking, and the social involvement of foreign actors. We realized that the social commitment with the self-determination process by regional community organizations has had a stronger leadership than the political parties. As a result, we state that political spin doctors in Catalonia could neither drive nor control the framing process of the last parliamentary regional campaign.
AB - The U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 signified a change on the paradigm of how the political parties deal with local communities. This means that grassroots techniques arose as a key factor for the triumph of Barack H. Obama. After the election, European political parties-even social movements-also adapted some strategies inspired by the U.S. presidential campaigns. The main objective of this article is to analyze how these grassroots techniques have been adapted in a specific scenario: the process of self-determination of Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain that claims to be an independent country after the failing of Estado de las Autonomías (state of autonomies) model. Our method is to explore the parameters that drove the Obama's first presidential campaign and how they have been applied into the self-determination campaign of Catalonia, such as the creation of local opinion platforms, media spin doctoring, social networking, and the social involvement of foreign actors. We realized that the social commitment with the self-determination process by regional community organizations has had a stronger leadership than the political parties. As a result, we state that political spin doctors in Catalonia could neither drive nor control the framing process of the last parliamentary regional campaign.
KW - media spin doctoring
KW - opinion leaders
KW - political parties
KW - public relations
KW - social networking
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901200554&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0002764213506214
DO - 10.1177/0002764213506214
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84901200554
SN - 0002-7642
VL - 58
SP - 928
EP - 940
JO - American Behavioral Scientist
JF - American Behavioral Scientist
IS - 7
ER -