Avoiding or Engaging Problems? Issue Ownership, Problem Indicators, and Party Issue Competition

Thomas Artmann  Kristensen; Christoffer Green-Pedersen; Peter Bjerre Mortensen; Henrik Bech Seeberg

doi:10.1080/13501763.2022.2135754

Avoiding or Engaging Problems? Issue Ownership, Problem Indicators, and Party Issue Competition

Thomas Artmann Kristensen, Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Peter Bjerre Mortensen, Henrik Bech Seeberg^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Political Science

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Issue competition theories posit that political parties have little incentive to emphasize the same issues, because they mostly benefit from emphasizing issues where they are viewed as more competent. In contrast, a number of empirical studies find considerable overlap in parties’ issues emphasis. Aiming to bridge this peculiar gap, this paper suggests that the development of exogenous problems is one factor that constrains parties’ incentives to talk past each other. Using comprehensive data on party attention to ten issues across six West European countries from approximately 1980 and onwards, the analysis shows that problems moderate the relationship between parties’ issue reputations and their issue emphases. When problems are moderate, parties selectively focus on different issues, but when problems become severe, parties across the board attend to an issue. That even includes parties that do not own the issue. These results have reassuring implications for parties’ responsiveness to societal problems that negatively affect the welfare of citizens.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of European Public Policy
Volume	30
Issue	12
Pages (from-to)	2854-2885
Number of pages	32
ISSN	1350-1763
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2022.2135754
Publication status	Published - Dec 2023

Keywords

Issue ownership
issue overlap
party competition
problem indicators
problems

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10.1080/13501763.2022.2135754

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title = "Avoiding or Engaging Problems? Issue Ownership, Problem Indicators, and Party Issue Competition",

abstract = "Issue competition theories posit that political parties have little incentive to emphasize the same issues, because they mostly benefit from emphasizing issues where they are viewed as more competent. In contrast, a number of empirical studies find considerable overlap in parties{\textquoteright} issues emphasis. Aiming to bridge this peculiar gap, this paper suggests that the development of exogenous problems is one factor that constrains parties{\textquoteright} incentives to talk past each other. Using comprehensive data on party attention to ten issues across six West European countries from approximately 1980 and onwards, the analysis shows that problems moderate the relationship between parties{\textquoteright} issue reputations and their issue emphases. When problems are moderate, parties selectively focus on different issues, but when problems become severe, parties across the board attend to an issue. That even includes parties that do not own the issue. These results have reassuring implications for parties{\textquoteright} responsiveness to societal problems that negatively affect the welfare of citizens.",

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Avoiding or Engaging Problems? Issue Ownership, Problem Indicators, and Party Issue Competition. / Kristensen, Thomas Artmann ; Green-Pedersen, Christoffer ; Mortensen, Peter Bjerre et al.
In: Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 30, No. 12, 12.2023, p. 2854-2885.

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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AU - Green-Pedersen, Christoffer

AU - Mortensen, Peter Bjerre

AU - Seeberg, Henrik Bech

PY - 2023/12

Y1 - 2023/12

N2 - Issue competition theories posit that political parties have little incentive to emphasize the same issues, because they mostly benefit from emphasizing issues where they are viewed as more competent. In contrast, a number of empirical studies find considerable overlap in parties’ issues emphasis. Aiming to bridge this peculiar gap, this paper suggests that the development of exogenous problems is one factor that constrains parties’ incentives to talk past each other. Using comprehensive data on party attention to ten issues across six West European countries from approximately 1980 and onwards, the analysis shows that problems moderate the relationship between parties’ issue reputations and their issue emphases. When problems are moderate, parties selectively focus on different issues, but when problems become severe, parties across the board attend to an issue. That even includes parties that do not own the issue. These results have reassuring implications for parties’ responsiveness to societal problems that negatively affect the welfare of citizens.

AB - Issue competition theories posit that political parties have little incentive to emphasize the same issues, because they mostly benefit from emphasizing issues where they are viewed as more competent. In contrast, a number of empirical studies find considerable overlap in parties’ issues emphasis. Aiming to bridge this peculiar gap, this paper suggests that the development of exogenous problems is one factor that constrains parties’ incentives to talk past each other. Using comprehensive data on party attention to ten issues across six West European countries from approximately 1980 and onwards, the analysis shows that problems moderate the relationship between parties’ issue reputations and their issue emphases. When problems are moderate, parties selectively focus on different issues, but when problems become severe, parties across the board attend to an issue. That even includes parties that do not own the issue. These results have reassuring implications for parties’ responsiveness to societal problems that negatively affect the welfare of citizens.

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Avoiding or Engaging Problems? Issue Ownership, Problem Indicators, and Party Issue Competition

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