Prototype Politics: Technology-Intensive Campaigning and the Data of Democracy(Oxford Studies in Digital Politics)

Given the advanced state of digital technology and social media, one would think that the Democratic and Republican Parties would be reasonably well-matched in terms of their technology uptake and sophistication. But as past presidential campaigns have shown, this is not the case. So what explains this odd disparity? Political scientists have shown that Republicans effectively used the strategy of party building and networking to gain campaign and electoral advantage throughout the twentieth century. In Prototype Politics, Daniel Kreiss argues that contemporary campaigning has entered a new technology-intensive era that the Democratic Party has engaged to not only gain traction against the Republicans, but to shape the new electoral context and define what electoral participation means in the twenty-first century. Prototype Politics provides an analytical framework for understanding why and how campaigns are newly "technology-intensive," and why digital media, data, and analytics are at the forefront of contemporary electoral dynamics. The book discusses the importance of infrastructure, the contexts within which technological innovation happens, and how the collective making of prototypes shapes parties and their technological futures. Drawing on an analysis of the careers of 629 presidential campaign staffers from 2004-2012, as well as interviews with party elites on both sides of the aisle, Prototype Politics details how and why the Democrats invested more in technology, were able to attract staffers with specialized expertise to work in electoral politics, and founded an array of firms to diffuse technological innovations down ballot and across election cycles. Taken together, this book shows how the differences between the major party campaigns on display in 2012 were shaped by their institutional histories since 2004, as well as that of their extended network of allied organizations. In the process, this book argues that scholars need to understand how technological development around politics happens in time and how the dynamics on display during presidential cycles are the outcome of longer processes.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Party Networks and Political Innovation Chapter 2: The Grand Old Party: Innovations From the Edge to Center Chapter 3: Republican Party Inertia in a Changed Political Context Chapter 4: The Aftermath of McCain's Defeat Chapter 5: Reelecting the President Chapter 6: Old Paths and New Beginnings Chapter 7: The Dynamics of Technology-intensive Campaigning Methodological Appendix: Studying Technology and Politics Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Daniel Kreiss is Associate Professor in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an affiliated fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.

Review :
"Kreiss' contributions to political communication and STS are fresh and exciting. This book is a true insider's guide, and the final message about how data can improve the fabric of democracy will resonate with all readers." --New Media & Society "It's said that architecture is politics in stone. Daniel Kreiss shows that the database architecture of technology-intensive campaigning is politics in code. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand innovation in the infrastructure of America's political parties." --David Stark, author of The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life "In this important book Daniel Kreiss argues that we have entered a 'technology-intensive' era of presidential campaigning-one requiring fluid networks of experts and novices, transforming national parties into 'databases,' and evoking the socially-embedded politics of a century ago. Skillfully combining data and interpretation, Kreiss traces these changes to the way two decades of electoral outcomes were differentially understood by the Democratic and Republican parties." --Michael X. Delli Carpini, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania "Prototype Politics offers a substantive behind-the-scenes look at campaigns' use of technology and how it is dramatically changing what it means to run for office in the 21st century. Kreiss has talked to a deep bench of practitioners in the campaign digital, data and analytics space that allows for insights into the process that go far beyond what you would normally get from daily coverage of the political horserace." -- Alex Lundry, co-founder of Deep Root Analytics and Director of Data Science for Romney 2012