The 2008 Spanish General Elections: “Antagonistic Bipolarization” Geared by Presidential Debates, Partisanship, and Media Interests

Abstract

The Spanish general elections of 2008 held attributes familiar to Western democracies: permanent campaigning, negativism, and personalization. The mainstream media played along the strategy of bipartisan polarization encouraged by the Socialists and the conservatives, which resulted in a loss of power for the smaller nationalist parties and the postcommunist left. Candidate debates returned to Spanish television after fifteen years, but the moderating role of journalists was banned by the two big parties, who defined and agreed on the debate topics beforehand.The use of new communication technologies by political parties did not result in an open-source campaign. Spontaneous citizen participation was more feared than desired, and formerly revolutionary Web 2.0 was co-opted and tamed by the parties, integrating it into their political marketing tool kit.