Issue Reframing by Parties: The Effect of Issue Salience and Ownership

in Party Politics (2019), 25(4), 507-519

Issue reframing occurs when parties, while addressing an issue, shift the frame toward other policy domains. The literature has found that party issue framing affects how voters think about issues, yet ... [more ▼]

Issue reframing occurs when parties, while addressing an issue, shift the frame toward other policy domains. The literature has found that party issue framing affects how voters think about issues, yet scholars remain largely in the dark as to when and how parties frame issues. The study at hand theorizes and investigates when and how parties reframe issues in their external communication. Drawing on novel Belgian data about parties’ official stances regarding a large number of policy issues combined with their verbal argumentation of why they took this exact position, we test a new theory about the drivers and mechanisms of issue reframing. We find that parties reframe issues in terms of policy domains that are both salient to the general public and that are salient to the party itself—meaning that it has a history of devoting attention to the policy domain and “owns” it. [less ▲]

The Matthew Effect in Electoral Campaigns: Increase in Policy Congruence Inequality During the Campaign

in Electoral Studies (2017)

Previous studies have almost consistently found differences between lower and higher educated voters regarding their policy congruence, the policy position agreement between voters and their party. This ... [more ▼]

Previous studies have almost consistently found differences between lower and higher educated voters regarding their policy congruence, the policy position agreement between voters and their party. This study analyses the role of a campaign herein. Based on novel panel evidence with an extensive battery of policy statements, combined with a survey of party leaders using the same items, we find that, more than the lowly educated, the highly educated profit from the campaign to increase their policy congruence. The reason for the increased inequality is that the later switch parties more often during the campaign than the former. Our evidence also suggests that the higher educated switch parties because this may increase their policy congruence. In sum, the campaign produces a Matthew effect. Those already having a higher policy congruence increase their congruence even further, while those with a lower congruence to start with, do not make any significant progress. [less ▲]