ABSTRACT
Election campaigns play a critical role in contemporary democracy. “Elections are arguably the single most important event in American democratic life,” observed political scientist James A. Thurber. Elections, he explained, provide “an opportunity for Americans to both give their consent to be governed and to hold their representatives accountable for past performance” (Thurber, 2000, p. 1). In a similar fashion, Paolo Mancini and David Swanson (1996) noted that election campaigns “select decision makers, shape policy, distribute power, and provide venues for debate and socially approved expressions of conflict . . . Symbolically, campaigns legitimate democratic government and political leaders, uniting voters and candidates in displays of civic piety and rituals of national renewal” (p. 1).
