1952年大統領選挙と政治コンサルタントの台頭

抄録

This article analyzes the role of political consulting in American campaigns, focusing on consultants’ activities in the Republican Party during the 1950s. As campaign professionals, political consultants provided candidates with advice and services, including polling, public relations, and fundraising, among others. After new communication technologies such as radio and television became popular in American society, political candidates and interest groups required media experts in the political arena. Drawing on marketing techniques from the advertising industry, consultants emerged as the new elite of political business in the United States by the mid-twentieth century. In the 1952 presidential election, Dwight Eisenhower engaged in new campaigning by employing political consultants and television advertising, whereas Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson relied largely on labor unions and gained support from liberal intellectuals.

Investigating the contrasting campaign strategies of the two parties, this study examines how political consultants gave shape to a new “grassroots” mobilization in the 1950s. Labor unions involved people with campaign activities for Democrats at the precinct level, and connected campaign workers and supporters through the organizational structure. On the other hand, consultants mobilized volunteers in loose networks. Since the Republican Party could not depend on political machines and unions, Republicans and consultants devoted attention to inexperienced volunteers, primarily women, as the rank-and-file of presidential and congressional campaigns over the 1950s. The campaign plan for the 1952 race indicated that consultants harnessed offensive, emotional messages to arouse support and reach out to voters. The institutionalization of emotion characterized the new grassroots campaigns crafted by political consultants, representing anti-intellectualism in American society at midcentury.

Such campaigns provoked controversies over political public relations throughout the 1950s. Journalists and intellectuals pointed out the intimate relationship of the GOP with advertising agencies, and mass society theory held that political advertising could control people and undermine American democracy. This controversy affected the contemp orary, particularly Stevenson’s, sensitivity to the political use of television and consultants.

However, this article illustrates how political consultants paved the way for women’s participation in partisan politics over the 1950s. According to political consultants’ plans that highlighted the significance of women as volunteers and audiences, the Republican campaign organizations recruited women for canvassing and media production. Consultants also adopted direct mail fundraising, collecting small dollar money from a larger base. By describing the interactions between consultants and the grassroots, this research explores American electioneering of the 1950s.