Setting the Agenda or Responding to Voters? Political Parties, Voters and Issue Attention

Political Parties' Rhetoric Signaling of Sustainable Development

“…Source: Own calculations based on Polidoc.net (Benoit et al, 2009). sustainability, especially in the period after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Given public awareness of this issue, this finding resonates well with the research in comparative politics on the responsiveness of political actors to the public's issue priorities (see Ansolabehere and Iyengar, 1994;Froio et al, 2016;Klüver and Sagarzazu, 2016;Soroka and Wlezien, 2005;Wagner and Meyer, 2014;Wlezien and Soroka, 2007;Zohlnhöfer and Engler, 2014). More specifically, our results tie in nicely with insights provided by studies on sustainable development that show the evolution of (media) attention levels over time (see Holt and Barkemeyer, 2012).…”

“…This expectation is supported by the ‘riding the wave’ argument put forward by Ansolabehere and Iyengar () that posits that political actors are better off when responding to the electorate's issue priorities (see Fournier et al , ; Sides, ). Recent empirical evidence on issue attention of political actors suggests that such dynamics might play a role not only during election campaigns (Wagner and Meyer, ), but throughout the entire legislative term, particularly in multi‐party systems (Klüver and Sagarzazu, ).…”

Economic Decline and Extreme‐Right Electoral Threat: How District‐Level Factors Shape the Legislative Debate on Immigration

“…There is vast literature demonstrating that parties use information on voting intentions and voters’ preferences to adjust their positions (Adams, Ezrow, and Glasgow ; Adams, Haupt, and Stoll ; Somer‐Topcu ). Another strand of the literature shows that parties modify their attention based on changes in voters’ issues salience (Borghetto and Russo ; Klüver and Sagarzazu ; Klüver and Spoon ) and that their ability to adjust is conditional on institutional variables such as government status (van Heck ; van Spanje ). Another set of works addresses electoral challenges, and parties’ response to shifts in the positions of rival parties or niche party entry (Abou‐Chadi ; Adams and Somer‐Topcu ; Meguid ; Spoon, Hobolt, and De Vries ).…”

“…these periods provide a favorable political-opportunity structure for political entrepreneurs (arzheimer and Carter 2006;Kitschelt 1986) who try to use crises to reshape the political agenda to their advantage. in these cases, mainstream politicians use available information regarding social, economic, and electoral conditions to make costly decisions as to which issues to address and what positions to take on these issues (Borghetto and russo 2018;Klüver and sagarzazu 2015).…”

Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Evaluating the Dynamics of Parties' Issue Attention in Coalition Governments

“…Instead of seeming out of touch by not reacting to the concerns of their electorate, political parties would carefully monitor public opinion and strategically emphasize policy issues that are important to their voters. Recent empirical evidence accordingly shows that political parties respond to the issue priorities of their voters in their election manifestos (Klüver and Spoon, ; Spoon and Klüver, , ; Wagner and Meyer, ) and in their day‐to‐day political communication (Klüver and Sagarzazu, ).…”