11. Electoral Campaigns: Issue Ownership

Question 1

when is a party considered an issue owner

Answer 1

when they are believed to be better at handling an issue

1. more sincere
2. more competent
3. more committed

associative and competence dimension

sincere / competent / committed

Question 2

associative dimension

Answer 2

how much do people think about the party in relation to a certain topic

Question 3

competence dimension

Answer 3

is this association between party and issue positive or negative

Question 4

idea behind issue ownership

Answer 4

idea behind issue ownership is therefore that you try to prioritise an issue in people’s heads that you are the issue owner of, because when you are the issue owner of the top priority, you generally win elections

prioritize issue that you are issue owner of –> if you are issue owner of top priority , you generally win elections

Question 5

when did issue ownership become more important

Answer 5

since voters have become more volatile.

party vote share now consists of a base vote + floating voters, and these floating voters base their vote on your competence and association with an issue in combination with voter salience

Question 6

long-term ownership

Answer 6

Long-term ownership is somewhat structural: if you think of climate change, you think of the greens

Question 7

short-term ownership

Answer 7

Short-term ownership is more crisis-related: if you think of COVID, you think of Rutte

Question 8

positive and negative issue ownership

Answer 8

This distinction is based on your competence in dealing with a certain issue.

Negative issue ownership can therefore be defined as a party’s reputation for being unable to solve a problem and for being insincere and not committed to addressing it.

Question 9

issue stealing

Answer 9

Issue ownership can also change by another party stealing issue ownership from the issue owner and thereby becoming the new issue owner

Question 10

issue stealing is likely to become succesfull when

Answer 10

The issue thief starts talking a lot about the issue (associative dimension)

The current issue owner does not talk about the issue (associative dimension)

The issue is relatively new (as a priority) (competence dimension)

The current issue owner makes mistakes on this issue (competence dimension)

In multi-party systems, you can become joint issue owners based on valence (one issue owner in favour and one against) - in these systems, connections are less wellestablished and it is easier to win over issue ownership

thief talks a lot about issue / current owner not

issue is new / current owner makes mistake on issue

Question 11

pivoting an issue

Answer 11

You can also pivot an issue, by framing it in such a way, that it is caused by another issue that you are the issue owner of (e.g. framing housing crisis as migration crisis).

This is however not technically stealing issue ownership, because the issue owner remains the same. It is more a matter of framing.

Question 12

trait ownership

Answer 12

direct connection between the issues owned by a party and the traits voters associate with a party’s candidates.

link between issues owned by party - traits associated with party candidates

Question 13

associative and competence dimension trait ownership

Answer 13

associative dimension for this is very hard tochange, whereas the competence dimension is relatively easier to change

Question 14

trait ownership as baseline

Answer 14

If you own it, you have to act on it. If you do not own it, you cannot disappoint, but you can surprise voters positively.

Question 15

examples of trait ownership

Answer 15

strong, compassionate, sincere, authentic, etc