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Issue Salience and Party Choice

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  • RePass, David E.

Abstract

A number of leading studies of voting behavior in recent years have concluded that specific issues are not a salient element in the electoral decision. These studies have indicated not only that voters are unfamiliar with most issues, but also that the electorate is generally unable to detect differences between Republican and Democratic positions on issues. Using the same Survey Research Center interviews upon which these previous findings were based, this article modifies these previous evaluations. This study concentrates on data from the 1964 election —a campaign that was notable not for the issues it raised, but rather for the public's strong reactions to the candidates. The findings in this article show that, even in 1964, most people were concerned with a number of specific issues and that these issue concerns had a very measurable effect on voting choice. Furthermore, large proportions of people were able accurately to perceive the differences between the parties on those issues that were salient to them. The major reason these findings are so different from previous results is that new measures and a different approach were used—particularly open-ended interview material that for the first time allowed the researcher to discover the issues that were salient to the voter.

Suggested Citation

  • RePass, David E., 1929. "Issue Salience and Party Choice," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 389-400, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:65:y:1971:i:02:p:389-400_13
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    Cited by:

    1. Mourtgos, Scott M. & Adams, Ian T., 2019. "The rhetoric of de-policing: Evaluating open-ended survey responses from police officers with machine learning-based structural topic modeling," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Zeev Ben-Sira, 1977. "A facet theoretical approach to voting behavior," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 167-188, June.
    3. Chaney, Paul, 2015. "Exploring political parties’ manifesto discourse on tourism: Analysis of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections 1998–2011," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 113-127.
    4. Josep Colomer & Humberto Llavador, 2012. "An agenda-setting model of electoral competition," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 73-93, March.
    5. Arianna Degan, 2003. "A Dynamic Model of Voting," PIER Working Paper Archive 04-015, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 May 2004.
    6. André Blais & Pierre Martin & Richard Nadeau, 1998. "Can People Explain Their Own Vote? Introspective Questions as Indicators of Salience in the 1995 Quebec Referendum on Sovereignty," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 355-366, November.
    7. Stephen Ansolabehere & M. Socorro Puy, 2015. "Issue-salience, Issue-divisiveness and Voting Decisions," Working Papers 2015-01, Universidad de Málaga, Department of Economic Theory, Málaga Economic Theory Research Center.
    8. Constanze Binder, 2014. "Preferences and Similarity between Alternatives," Rationality, Markets and Morals, Frankfurt School Verlag, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, vol. 5(88), November.
    9. Chaney, Paul, 2014. "Mixed-methods analysis of political parties׳ manifesto discourse on rail transport policy: Westminster, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections 1945–2011," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 275-285.

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