... especially including info on the tactics used to win the elections (and their results), TV spots and... well, any related material, really.

A bunch of people in a local political party here think that they can use that as reference materials for their own umpteenth-league politics, and since one of my friends is associated with them, he asked me for help in finding some materials on the subject.

Could you please help me? :angel:

Pretty broad request... do you want to know how (for example) the Dutch political parties work (as in policies, marketing), do you want to know what their main focus points are, do you want history/details?
I would love to help but I don't think I can do a lot with the information you give here.

Oi - I don't actually have the clip, but here's something.

This guy is Janez Drnovšek. He's currently the president of Slovenia, but used to be the PM. He was the leader of the Liberal Democratic party (which has been the strongest party since Slovene's independance). In the last parlamentary ellections with him as a party leader they made a spot, where only his dog (Arthur) was visable and he spoke to the public. The president is not married, so they were showing him with his dog all the time in the newspapers anyway and everybody knew the dog (here's a picture of him and the dog).

That's kinda sad. Remember Hitler and Blondie? The German sheperd dog?
I'm not suggesting anything, but it just seems to me that this method of self-
portrayal is a little......I don't know.....aah, forget it.

Please leave Nazi refferences out of this thread. Not only is there no connection but it puts people in a bad light that is not really there.

Hmm, interesting comparison. There's no similarity between Drnovšek and Hitler (you can try and check - or just take my word for it) - except for the dog part.

Anyway, this is from the latest parlamentary election we had (about 1 1/2 years ago).
http://www.kvak.com/index.php/id/54
This guy is Janez Podobnik (yes, Janez is a very common name in Slovenia). There's a place on the border crossing with Croatia, where the exact border line isn't set. In that theritory (for which it still isn't clear on which side of the border it is) is a house of a Slovenian citizen. He had some problems with Croatian border controls and authorities in the past. Before the election Podobnik (the candidate for the Slovenian People's party) went to this man's house (with a delegation) and came in a fight with Croatian border police. He even got arrested. Obviously he went there (to this guy's house) to get political points. Anyway - most people saw this as a provocation (people from both sides of the border) and it didn't help with the election. What exactly did he want to achieve remains uncertain.

Now I'm getting the point.
The worker's party PvdA got very popular, because they opposed the single constitution. They almost inplemented propaganda, with flyers stating that a united Europe would kill the Netherlands. This of course attracted a lot (and in the end the Constitution was rejected in a referendum).

Heck yeah, I'd vote for a guy with a talking dog! Come to think of it, I might vote for the dog instead.

I have an interesting article, but then i saw we are not allowed to share it as it will be pubished :(

But i could give some other information. Althought i think you should narrow your field a bit.

Tactics... yeah the bashing of the oppoising side, creating histeria, constant obstructions and barelly plausible made up afairs, trying to get back at people... - the tactics of current Slovenian PM.

The most intertesting thing i noticed is the communism bashing. Why is that so strange, you might ask. well it is because they themsleves were ones eagar communists and their party has plenty of various doctors of marksism (PhD). but they were frustrated in previous regime because despite their "high" degrees they never got a very good job. Or they had it but managed to ruin the company and then blamed it all on the others.

Another tactis worth mentioning was MIlosevic getting over 100% of votes. How did that happen? well they rigged the elections somehow. :D

Ok, he wants more about UK and US parties, but anything else that might be a worthy reference also goes.
How do they work, yes, focus points maybe, but their history isn't needed at all.

Also, you don't have to give me the info yourselves, I'd actually much more appreciate being directed to some decent online sources.

Thanks again.