A functional analysis of the 2006 Canadian and 2007 Australian election debates.

• Author: Benoit, William L.

INTRODUCTION

This study replicates past research on political leaders debates (Benoit, 2007; Benoit & Klyukovski, 2006; Benoit & Sheafer, 2006; Benoit & Wen, & Yu, 2007; Lee & Benoit, 2005), extending that work to examine electoral debates in two countries with parliamentary systems of government, Canada's 2006 election and Australia's 2007 campaign. Debates during campaigns for political office are a well established medium for candidates to reach voters. A plethora of democratic countries have utilized this message form to educate voters, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Israel, New Zealand, Scotland, South Korea, Sweden, Poland, Taiwan, The Ukraine, and The United States.

Debates are an important campaign message form because they possess several advantages other message forms lack. First, debates present considerable information to voters. Televised debates are much longer than other common messages forms, such as TV spots. Accordingly they afford candidates a greater opportunity to provide information to voters and to distinguish themselves from opponents. Second, the debate format allows voters to compare leading candidates' character and issue positions directly. Third, candidates present information extemporaneously, and at times must provide impromptu answers to unexpected questions or comments from opponents. Although candidates do prepare for their debate appearances, voters may obtain a more candid view of each candidate than is possible with highly scripted message forms such as stump speeches or TV spots (Schrott, 1990). Debates also generate both media attention and political discussion among many voters concerning the candidates and their policies, which broadens their potential influence.

Televised electoral debates are capable of influencing audiences. Benoit, Hansen, and Verser (2003) used meta-analysis to establish that watching presidential debates created issue knowledge, influenced perceptions of the character of the candidate, and could change vote choice. Lanoue (1991) found that the 1984 Canadian leadership debates influenced voting behavior. Blais and Boyer (1996), investigating the 1988 Canadian debates, determined that watching debates altered vote choice and voters' perceptions. Kang and Juang (1999) observed that the South Korean 1997 televised presidential debates had an impact on voters. Debates allowed the candidates to further develop their images, and in some cases alter prevailing negative opinions. Eighty percent of these South Korean respondents reported that the debates influenced their vote decision. Maier and Faas (2003) reported that the 2002 German debates influenced the images of the candidates. Walker and Kang (2004) argued that the 2002 election in Taiwan was decided, in large part, due to the fresh image presented by Roh and the Millennium Democratic Party and the influence of technology, specifically debate viewing. Nearly 66 percent of viewers who watched the debate claimed that it influenced their decision and 37 percent claimed that debate viewing altered their vote choice. Blais, Gidengil, Nadean, and Nevitte (2003) concluded that the 2003 Canadian debates were "critical in the Conservative surge" (p. 49). A study of the German debates of 2002 provided evidence that acclaims and commonplaces elicited unanimous support, whereas attacks, statements of fact, and political plans tended to polarize the audience. So, studies of debate effects around the world conclude that this message form can affect voters.

Debates also have shown potential to increase political efficacy and promote civic engagement (Chafee, 1978; McLeod et al., 1979). Given the fact that political debates tend to attract large audiences--e.g., half of eligible Canadian voters watched the 1979 debate (LeDuc & Price, 1985), 59% watched the Israeli debate in 1996 (Blum-Kulka & Liebes, 2000), and 65% watched one of the German Chancellor debates in 2002 (Faas & Maier, 2004)--they have a tremendous potential to inform and influence voters. So, political leaders' debates are increasingly common, attract many viewers, and have been found to influence voters. Accordingly, it is appropriate to study televised political campaign debates around the world.

Non-US debates are, comparatively, an understudied phenomenon (e.g., books on American presidential debates include Benoit et al., 2002; Benoit & Wells, 1996; Bishop, Meadow, & Jackson-Beeck, 1980; Bitzer & Rueter, 1980; Carlin & McKinney, 1994; Daily, Hinck, & Hinck, 2008; Friedenberg, 1994, 1997; Hellweg, Pfau, & Brydon, 1992; Hinck, 1993; Jamieson & Birdsell, 1988; Kraus, 1962, 1979, 2000; Lanoue & Schrott, 1991; Martel, 1983; Schroeder, 2000; and Swerdlow, 1987). McKinney and Carlin (2004) argue that more research in this area is imperative if we are to understand the nature and effects of televised debates in the U.S. and foreign nations. This section will provide a summary of key investigations of debates and a review of the limited studies investigating non-U.S, political leaders' debates.

Coleman's (2000) volume is the largest compilation of international debate essays. However, these studies tend to be historical or conceptual essays rather than content analytic studies and so are less relevant to this study. Gilbert (1982) analyzed French debates, examining context, highlights, and public opinion polls. Galasinski (1998) investigated rule breaking in the 1995 Polish debates. Matsaganis and Weingarten (2001) looked at a 2000 Greek prime minister debate, examining issues, strategy, and style. Baker and Norpoth (1981) concluded that the 1972 West German debates focused more on issues than ethics (character). They noted that the candidates supporting the government tended to defend their record while opposition party candidates tended to attack the government's record. These studies are a useful beginning, but given the potential differences between countries and cultures, more work applying a consistent theoretical framework would be useful.

Benoit's (2007) Functional Theory, which argues that candidates for elective office use three functions (acclaims or positive statements, attacks or criticisms of opponents, and defenses or refutations of attacks) on two topics (policy or issues, character or personality) to court voters, has been applied to every American general election presidential debate (Benoit, Blaney, & Pier, 1998; Benoit & Brazeal, 2002; Benoit & Harthcock, 1999; Benoit, McHale, Hansen, Pier, & McGuire, 2003; Benoit, Stein, McHale, Chattopadhyay, Verser, & Price, 2007; Benoit & Wells, 1996; Wells, 1999) and to many presidential primary debates from 1948-2000 (Benoit, Pier, Brazeal, McHale, Klyukovski, & Aime, 2002). This research revealed that acclaims are more common than attacks, which are in turn more frequent than defenses. Further, incumbents acclaim more and attack less than challengers. Candidates in U.S. debates focus more on policy (problems amenable to governmental action and proposals for governmental action) than character (personality of candidates; Benoit, 2007). Recently this theory has also been extended to political leaders' debates in other countries: South Korean debates (Lee & Benoit, 2005), Israeli debates (Benoit & Sheafer, 2006), Ukrainian debates (Benoit & Klyukovski, 2006), and Taiwanese debates (Benoit, Wen, & Yu, 2007). Acclaims outnumbered attacks, which in turn were more common than defenses in South Korea and Israel. One of the two candidates in The Ukraine and Taiwanese debates attacked more than they acclaimed. It was the challengers who attacked more than they acclaimed in these countries; as we shall see, challengers tend to attack more than incumbents. In all four countries, policy comments were more common in debates than utterances about character. In Israel, Taiwan, and The Ukraine the incumbent acclaimed more and attacked less than the challenger: South Korea limits presidents to a single term in office and because there is no vice president to run on the administration's record, it is not surprising that no incumbency effects were found in South Korean debates. It is clear that some characteristics of the content of political leaders' debates are similar across countries.

Only a few studies, noted earlier, have investigated televised debates in Canada; unfortunately, they were not designed to provide information about message content-and we were unable to locate research on the functions and topics of Australian debates. Replication is a vital part of the research process because it provides greater confidence in the claims asserted from scholarship (Rosenthal, 1991). As Lamal (1991) explained, replication is "necessary because our knowledge is corrigible" (p. 31). Similarly, Boster (2002) observed that in the field of communication, "scholars pay relatively little attention to replication" (p. 477). To add to the growing body of literature on international debates, particularly in countries with a parliamentary form of government, this study investigates the 2006 Canadian and 2007 Australian Prime Minister debates utilizing Functional Theory (Benoit, 2007).

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The Functional Theory of Political Campaign...