Summary for Central Europe

Abstract

The chapter sums up the main common and different characteristics and features of campaigning in the Central European countries. Although campaigning in all four countries differs in many ways (i.e. different approaches to public media or buying airtime), there are some general trends which they share. They all introduced spending limits at some point, and in all of them, a greater shift toward professionalisation occurred after the year 2000. Most of the parties use all kinds of campaign media available and focus not only on the substantive level of politics but focus a lot of their resources and attention on their leaders (and other candidates). Recently, we have been witnessing an illiberal shift in the region which is also mirrored in slightly more populist campaigns.