POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN SLOVENIA: ELECTION POSTERS AS A MEANS OF INFORMATION AND PERSUASION

Abstract

Election posters represent a printed means of political communication under the direct control of political actors. Posters still play an important role in the election process, as for the past two centuries, which remains the case also in Slovenia. With the transition from socialism to liberal democracy, posters have continued to be an important feature of the political process, but with entirely different function. Whereas they were one of the main drivers of the propaganda machinery in the old regime, in the post-socialist era they are an important item of political pluralism. Taking an informative-persuasive framework, we analyse the character of electoral competition by examining election campaign posters over a period stretching from communist monism to contemporary democracy. We identify clear cut gap between the communist and post-communist periods, as well as confirm the assumption that the dominant political actors employ more persuasive campaigning while the less established devote more attention to informative campaigning.