Shouldering Giants: Campaign Consultants and the Professionalisation of American Election Campaigns.

Abstract

This thesis proposes that there is an inherent paradox in the American political cultural: that there is a strong distaste for any professionals spawned in the political process, despite that process being so complex (increasingly so) that professionals are required to navigate its courses on behalf of potential political candidates.

From a history of the campaign-consulting profession, the thesis explores the functions that these professionals carry out, the changing roles of the political parties who are seen to compete with these professionals for relevance, and then explores the role that professionals played in the presidential campaigns of 2008.