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Avoidance and Engagement: Issue Competition in Multiparty Systems

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  • Christoffer Green-Pedersen
  • Peter B. Mortensen

Abstract

type="main"> A substantial literature claims that political parties compete over issues by selectively emphasizing favorable issues and avoiding issues emphasized by their opponents. In recent years, this understanding of issue competition has been challenged by empirical studies showing issue engagement to be the rule rather than the exception. To move the discussion beyond the descriptive question about degree of issue avoidance or issue engagement, this article offers a theoretical framework of issue competition that addresses central but hitherto neglected questions about which parties respond to which parties. The main implications of the theoretical framework are tested in a set of statistical time-series analyses of party interaction in Denmark covering more than 50 years, 24 major issues and 21 elections. These analyses offer support to the ideas that parties are more responsive to the issue agendas of parties from their own party family than to the issue agendas of non-family parties and that large mainstream parties are more responsive than niche parties to the common issue agenda of the other parties in the party system.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoffer Green-Pedersen & Peter B. Mortensen, 2015. "Avoidance and Engagement: Issue Competition in Multiparty Systems," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 63(4), pages 747-764, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:63:y:2015:i:4:p:747-764
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1467-9248.12121
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Isabelle Guinaudeau & Olivier Costa, 2022. "Issue Politicization in the European Parliament. An Analysis of Parliamentary Questions for Oral Answer (2004–19)," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 507-525, May.
    2. Grande, Edgar & Schwarzbözl, Tobias & Fatke, Matthias, 2019. "Politicizing immigration in Western Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 26(10), pages 1444-1463.
    3. Ivanusch, Christoph & Zehnter, Lisa & Burst, Tobias, 2023. "Communicating in an eventful campaign: A case study of party press releases during the German federal election campaign 2021," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 86.
    4. Giebler, Heiko & Meyer, Thomas M. & Wagner, Markus, 2021. "The changing meaning of left and right: supply- and demand-side effects on the perception of party positions," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 243-262.
    5. Abou-Chadi, Tarik & Krause, Werner, 2020. "The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 50(3), pages 829-847.
    6. Juan Carlos Martín & Alessandro Indelicato, 2022. "A DEA MCDM Approach Applied to ESS8 Dataset for Measuring Immigration and Refugees Citizens’ Openness," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1941-1961, December.
    7. Schwarzbözl, Tobias & Fatke, Matthias & Hutter, Swen, 2020. "How party‒issue linkages vary between election manifestos and media debates," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 43(4), pages 795-818.
    8. Yamaguchi, Yohei, 2022. "Issue selection, media competition, and polarization of salience," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 197-225.

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