I ride with the reins taut, holding back, for the important thing is not to arrive alone, or even first, but together and on time.

León Felipe

(From Puebla, Mexico) ACCORDING TO THE EXPERTS, practicing politing (a combination of politics and traditional marketing) in its proper form has some advantages. It is certainly not a tool used by Satan himself, as it has nothing to do with wicked Lucifer, the loathsome devil, and is a practice unknown to the dangerous Mephistopheles.

Politing is not an instrument of neoliberalism either, or a disastrous consequence of globalization. And it is even less a Yankee imperialist ruse.

If we take a careful look at politing’s reasoning while free from any rigid constraints, if we study it without any biases or prejudices, the first thing that is easy to see is that it is simply this: a means of approaching reality, of transforming it into something good for society, a technique that, as such, helps bring about change. And the direction of that change is mainly dependent upon the ethical aspect of its conception, utilization and development. In other words, it is neither the fault of the tool in and of itself, nor of the instrument utilized.

Below you will find a dozen of politing’s varied and numerous advantages:

1. Politing promotes competitiveness, due to the possibility of it being used by all parties in any contest (regardless of size, position, seniority, etc), by each and every candidate competing for the public’s approval (regardless of social class, age, sex, economic resources, etc) and by all types of programs and proposals (regardless of ideologies, preconceptions or novelties, etc).

2. Politing brings the population’s true knowledge, as well as its needs, to the surface. Indeed, the precise aim of the study of the electoral market is to bring the most urgent necessities out into the open. Additionally, the fundamental goal of strategy-selection is to have the campaigns and work programs focus on meeting the expectations of voters, and of citizens in general.

3. Politing makes the public aware of partisan ideology; therefore, it uses the most suitable strategies to actually take part in the spreading of ideas, the effectiveness of which it extols.

4. Politing is a medium that can be used to facilitate the comprehension of the public’s preferences in relation to partisan organizations, their candidates, service offers, proposed added values, etc.

5. Politing provides objective information for decision-making. This is true for both electoral studies and the very application of respective strategies.

6. Politing foresees and avoids unnecessary risks that are absolutely capable of being detected during the planning stage. Otherwise, managers would find themselves stuck with a number of unforeseen problems that could have very easily been fixed beforehand.

7. Politing reduces excessive and unnecessary expenses. Thus, the money that can be saved by practicing it is an indisputable fact, and much more visible and transparent, above all when there is state financing for parties or political movements.

8. Politing optimizes resources in that it makes things effective, specifically with respect to its support of efficient selection and allocation of the various resources used in all political campaigns – in other words, the always scarce technical, financial and above all informative resources.

9. Politing increases the acceptance of a party, and in time, its candidates.

10. Politing facilitates democratic processes, and consequently makes access to information a real and viable alternative. In this way, the electorate’s decision-making becomes clearer and more transparent.

11. In politing, substance and content are what matter, since it is not all just form and style. Content also plays a fundamental, important and basic role, precisely when talking about the marketing of ideas.

12. Politing is currently a hot research topic, in the sense that the soil has been fertilized and the seeds have been sown. It just needs to be watered, and to be especially adapted and validated for Latin American countries, so it can be used there.