Designer politics : how elections are won / Margaret Scammell.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 324-332) and index.

Introduction: Propaganda and Political Marketing -- 1. Crusted Agent to Media Expert: The Changing Face of Campaigns -- 2. The Rise of Thatcher: Political Marketing's Quantum Leap -- 3. Marketing Triumphant: Falklands Fallout -- 4. Towards the Permanent Campaign: the 1987 Election -- 5. Government Publicity: Managing the News -- 6. Government Advertising: Information or Propaganda? -- 7. The Image-Makers Unbound: Marketing in the Post-Thatcher Era -- 8. Thatcher's Legacy: The Americanisation of British Politics?

This is the first book to offer a serious historical examination of the phenomenon of political marketing in Britain. It presents an analysis of the increasingly influential role of the image-makers and casts a critical eye over the debate concerning the impact of marketing on political conduct and governance.

Its primary focus is party and government communications in the Thatcher era and beyond, up to and including the 1992 general election. It argues that Thatcher, despite her image as the resolute politician, pioneered marketing techniques and concepts which have since become standard practice.

Designer Politics looks at the historical engines of growth of commercial salesmanship in politics. It explores how political culture and conduct have been affected by the phenomenon and to what extent politics and policy have been remoulded to fit the marketing process. The author challenges the prevailing pessimism that Britain is hurtling towards American presidential-style campaigns and that marketing necessarily demeans and undermines democracy.