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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The role of symbols in the Tanzania election 1965 |
Author: | Hyden, G. |
Year: | 1967 |
Periodical: | Mawazo |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 41-48 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | elections symbols |
Abstract: | What has come out in much of the material from the election is that the symbols in a sense operated independently from the candidates with which they were associated. Despite the efforts of the candidates to emphasize the links with their respective symbols, the voters only to a limited extent attributed a necessary association between one candidate and his symbol. The symbols, however, did not operate independently from the social and economie context, To what extent the symbols became issues in themselves is hard to know. Who voted on the basis of the symbol alone tended to make up their minds later than those who had other reasons for voting for a particular candidate. It is wrong to believe that those who voted on the basis of symbol only were the least politically involved; on the contrary they were more involved while they discussed the election more often. The symbols served as a means to make the choice more meaningful. There is evidence to suggest that the two symbols used in the Tanzanian 1965 election significantly affected people's decision how to vote. Also the symbols served as ways of rationalizing local experiences. Notes; tables. |