The Limits of Issue Ownership Dynamics : The Constraining Effect of Party Preference

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_C277270F1724
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The Limits of Issue Ownership Dynamics : The Constraining Effect of Party Preference
Journal
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties
Author(s)
Walgrave S., Lefevere J., Tresch A.
ISSN
1745-7289
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
24
Number
1
Pages
1-19
Language
english
Abstract
Issue ownership theory argues that when a voter considers a party to be the most competent amongst others to deal with an issue (that is, the party "owns" the issue), chances are the voter will vote for that party. Recent work has shown that perceptions of issue ownership are dynamic: they are affected by the media coverage of party messages. However, based on the broad literature on partisan bias, we predict that parties' efforts to change issue ownership perceptions will have a difficult time breaching the perceptual screen created by a voter's party preference. Using two separate experiments with a similar design we show that the effect of partisan issue messages on issue competence is moderated by party preference. The effect of issue messages is reinforced when people already like a party, and blocked when people dislike a party.
Keywords
political parties, issue ownership, party preference, Belgium, campaign effects
Open Access
Yes
Create date
11/09/2014 9:25
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:37
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