(Manipulation; 10-03; p.2)

This phenomenon is far from new, but is increasing again recently.
If one needs another as government and opposition – which is a standard situation, due to Germany’s political culture – one cannot push through many of one’s own political concepts.
(Germany is a federal state with a federal parliament and a chamber of the constituent states, the "Länder"; secondly, there is a dominance of parties even in Länder affairs and thirdly, most federal laws have to be approved by the Länder chamber. An opposition party in the federal parliament that has a majority in the Länder chamber thus can block almost every important law initiated by the federal government.)
Therefore – so apparently the thinking of many politicians – one has to differentiate oneself, to present one’s own share in the concept as the "better product". Strikingly clear becomes this attitude in the assessment of the chancellor by B Haussmann: "The chancellor is the selling set of statistically found intersecting customer wishes." (B. Haussmann: "Öl im Getriebe der Welt" in: Frankfurter Rundschau No. 246 of 22/10/03, p. 21; translation, original in German)

Apart from the untenable statement that equates political with economic matters and thereby disregards the fact that contrary to economics in political matters universal power and so legal positions are stipulated, this has several noteworthy consequences.

 

Policies as PR-strategy

If, so the ends-related thinking, political concepts cannot made public and be discussed within one and a half minutes and even the effort does not pay off in votes, one can spare it, anyway.

Successful then will be the type of political sales-man, who gets the attention of the media business with headline-bearing statements. – The air-time or lines in an article gained are a lever to such sales-men of their importance. It becomes explainable in this way that some politicians do like showing up in entertainment formats, but rather dislike giving factual interviews.

That such strategies are successful, may seem plausible. Empirical election research, however, had to at least not falsify that in every single occurrence. The pragmatic maxim of policies-sellers acting in such a manner apparently is: cannot be harmful in contrast to longer interviews with competent journalists. (read on here)