Setting the Agenda or Responding to Voters? Political Parties, Voters and Issue Attention
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6405546 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Heinrich Kluver (0000-0003-4838-0754, Universität Hamburg), Heike Klüver, Iñaki Sagarzazu (0000-0001-8350-0454) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 380-398 |
| Publication date | 2016-03-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | West European Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0140-2382 • E-ISSN: 1743-9655 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01402382.2015.1101295 |
| OpenAlex | W2100683120 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 127 |
| References cited | 44 |
Why do political parties prioritise some policy issues over others? While the issue ownership theory suggests that parties emphasise policy issues on which they have an advantage in order to increase the salience of these issues among voters, the riding the wave theory argues instead that parties respond to voters by highlighting policy issues that are salient in the minds of citizens. This study sheds new light on the selective issue emphasis of political parties by analysing issue attention throughout the entire electoral cycle. On the basis of a quantitative text analysis of more than 40,000 press releases published by German parties from 2000 until 2010, this article provides empirical support for the riding the wave theory. It shows that political parties take their cues from voters by responding to the issue priorities of their electorate. The results have important implications for political representation and the role that parties play in democracies
Cognitive psychology · Economics · German · Law and economics · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Public relations · Representation (politics · Salience (neuroscience · Salient · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Psychology
Social Media Savvy? The Use and Effectiveness of Political Parties’ Issue Strategies Across Platforms in the German Federal Election Campaign 2025
A Loud but Noisy Signal?
When Different Elections Have Different Saliencies for Voters
Changing the Subject
Riding the Wave
Weaponizing Wedge Issues
Promising a Greener Paris
Determined by place or party? Issue salience in local election manifestos
Issue ownership in times of crisis
A programme written by citizens? Agenda-setters and veto players in drafting the 2018 election manifesto of the Five-star Movement
Tapestries of Topics
Parliamentary Women Opposition Leaders
A Consistent Picture? Issue‐Based Campaigning on Facebook During the 2021 German Federal Election Campaign
Economic Reformism vs Sociocultural Conservativism
The Partypress Database
Interest groups’ news media prominence as a conduit for parliamentary attention
Lobbying and policy conflict
What Matters to Voters? Analyzing the Influence of Targeted Online Ads on Perceived Issue Importance During the United States 2022 Midterm Election and the Dutch General Election 2021
How do parties use political advertising in election campaigns? Examining issue competition in advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram for the 2021 federal election in Germany
Latent Semantic Scaling
Off limits
When do salient social issues affect the generosity of welfare programmes
From ‘promising spring’ to ‘land of fear’
Explaining the allocation of legislative specialization
What determines the public’s support for water quality regulations to mitigate agricultural runoff
Green matters? The effects of green party support, autonomy and capacity on subnational environmental infringements
The populist spiral
This land is our land
United in Difficult Times? Investigating Party Communication on EU Solidarity
Political Parties' Rhetoric Signaling of Sustainable Development
Uncovering legislative pace in Germany
Tweeting about the environment in a European campaign. Are candidates in the European Parliament elections responsive to citizens’ environmental concerns
Misrepresented or Miss Represented? Gendered Priority Responsiveness in Norway
The Contemporary Presidency
Location matters! Geospatial dynamics of MP responses to Covid‐19 protests in multilevel systems
In sync or out of tune? Investigating intraparty opinion homogeneity between national leaderships and local representatives
Spatial contagion and party competition on environmental issue salience
Public Attitudes to Immigration in the Aftermath of Covid-19
The revelation incentive for issue engagement in campaigns
Parties’ issue responsiveness between elections
Personnel Control and Local Officials’ Attention to Economic Development
Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Evaluating the Dynamics of Parties' Issue Attention in Coalition Governments
Electoral strategies in multilevel systems
Electoral campaign effects
An elephant in the room? Explaining agenda-setting in antimicrobial resistance policies in 30 European countries
How Important is European Integration for Pro-European Voters in Times of Politicization
Keep Them Engaged! Investigating the Effects of Self-centered Social Media Communication Style on User Engagement in 12 European Countries
Examining the appointment of women to ministerial positions across Europe
Differently Eurosceptic
The challenger advantage – how challenger parties disrupt mainstream party dominance in the European Parliament
Responding in time
Explaining Europe’s transformed electoral landscape
Errors have been made, others will be blamed
Populism as a political trust booster? Populist support and degrees of political power in Central Europe
Agenda Control and Timing of Bill Initiation
Lost autonomy triggers and the rise of secessionism
Ideological congruence between party rhetoric and policy-making
Media, public opinion and parliamentary agendas’ effect in political parties’ agenda-setting
Do parties adjust their policy proposals to the political context? A study of election promises during the 2022 Italian general election
Coalition Governments and Party Competition
Where do parties talk about what? Party issue salience across communication channels
Promising links
How party‒issue linkages vary between election manifestos and media debates
Opposition parties seek more conflict with the government when losing electoral support
It’s the economy, stupid
Economic Responsiveness and the Political Conditioning of the Electoral Cycle
The local political economy of the regulatory state
Judicial public relations
Patterns of Party Positioning in Referendums in Switzerland
Heuristics and Political Elites’ Judgment and Decision-Making
The Impact of Party Cues on Manual Coding of Political Texts
Issue Engagement in Election Campaigns The Impact of Electoral Incentives and Organizational Constraints
How the refugee crisis and radical right parties shape party competition on immigration
Mechanisms of Political Responsiveness
Attacks and Issue Competition
Explaining the patterns of contacts between interest groups and political parties
First avoidance, then engagement
Does social media enhance party responsiveness? How user engagement shapes parties’ issue attention on Facebook
Strategic issue emphasis in parties’ election campaign statements
Avoidance and engagement
Disseminating legislative debates
From agenda setters to agenda takers? The determinants of party issue attention in times of crisis
Paying for ads or getting into the news? How parties persuade citizens of their issue competence during an election campaign
Environmental chauvinism? Explaining issue expansion among non-mainstream parties
Should we talk about the weather? How party competition and coalition participation influence parties’ attention to economic issues
The temporal dimension of issue competition
Riding the Covid-19 Wave? Issue Attention during the Pandemic
The Unequal Distribution of Speaking Time in Parliamentary‐Party Groups
Issue Engagement Across Members of Parliament
Economic Decline and Extreme‐Right Electoral Threat
What do lawmakers understand by ‘public transparency’? A longitudinal study of Brazil’s legislative production
Guiding or Following the Crowd? Strategic Communication as Reputational and Regulatory Strategy
Congruent with whom? Parties’ issue emphases and voter preferences in welfare politics
Some policies matter more
Polarisation or convergence? How the economy shapes party policy positions
Avoiding or engaging problems? Issue ownership, problem indicators, and party issue competition
Democracy challenged
The Self-Proclaimed Defender of Freedom
Strategic Timing? Coalition Governments and the Introduction of Controversial Legislation Throughout the Electoral Cycle
Short-Term Issue Emphasis on Twitter During the 2017 German Election
Mapping Policy Preferences ii
Ideology, Strategy and Party Change
Mapping Policy Preferences
Government Formation and Policy Formulation in the German States
Nuisance vs. Substance
Explaining and Predicting Elections
Riding the Wave and Claiming Ownership Over Issues
The Growing Importance of Issue Competition
Policy Adjustment by Parties in Response to Rival Parties’ Policy Shifts
Avoidance or Engagement? Issue Convergence in U.S. Presidential Campaigns, 1960–2000
Which Issues do Parties Emphasise? Salience Strategies and Party Organisation in Multiparty Systems
Exploiting the Cracks
Campaign Advertising
Coalition Governments and Party Competition
The Dynamics of Issue Ownership in Presidential Campaigns
Party Reputations, Journalistic Expectations
Issue Convergence in Presidential Campaigns
Issue Importance and Performance Voting
Text as Data
A Bayesian Hierarchical Topic Model for Political Texts
Party media agenda-setting
Immigration as a political issue in Denmark and Sweden
The programme to policy linkage
Who sets the agenda and who responds to it in the Danish parliament? A new model of issue competition and agenda‐setting
Issue Entrepreneurship and Multiparty Competition
Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study
Making the Most of Statistical Analyses
Abortion
Who Responds? Voters, Parties and Issue Attention
The Consequences of Campaign Agendas
Owning the issue agenda
What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data
Constituency Influence in Congress
Issue Ownership and Presidential Campaigning, 1952-2000
Do parties respond? How electoral context influences party responsiveness
Issue salience, issue ownership, and issue-based vote choice
| Unique citing works | 127 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 12,7 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 126 |