The Change We Need? An Inquiry Into The Americanization Of PvdA Campaigns Of 1963 And 2006

Abstract

During recent years the presence of American influence in political campaigns became evident and sparked a debate whether or not the Dutch political culture was rapidly 'Americanising'. This thesis will investigate whether the Dutch campaigns are Americanising. In order to demarcate this research more clearly, a choice was made to focus on the evolution of Americanisation of one political party: the PvdA. First, five elements of Americanization are discussed and then tested on two national campaigns of the PvdA, namely 1963 and 2006. It found that Americanization is taking place when it comes to the Dutch PvdA campaigns and two out of five elements were recognized as early as 1963.