Publication
Title
Attacks and issue competition : do parties attack based on issue salience or issue ownership?
Author
Abstract
Various studies have been devoted to explaining the conditions under which parties engage in attack behavior. However, the existing literature has overlooked the issues on which parties attack. This study addresses this gap by arguing that the issues on which parties attack others are conditioned on their salience and the parties’ ownership. We argue that parties decide to increase attacks on issues that receive high levels of scrutiny in society and in the media (salience hypothesis). At the same time, the attention devoted to attacks is also expected to be higher on issues that parties own (issue ownership hypothesis). Therefore, attention to attacking others on a salient issue is expected to be the highest for parties that own a salient issue (congruence hypothesis). Using data on parties’ attacks during question time sessions from Belgium and the United Kingdom, together with a diverse set of measures on salience and ownership, we confirm our expectations in both cases. Parties attack others on salient issues and on issues that they own, and when a party has ownership over a salient issue, it will devote the greatest attention to attacking on that issue. These results provide an understanding of parties’ attack behavior and contribute to the broader issue competition literature.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Political communication. - London, 1992, currens
Publication
London : 2024
ISSN
1058-4609 [print]
1091-7675 [online]
DOI
10.1080/10584609.2023.2264224
Volume/pages
41 :2 (2024) , p. 269-289
ISI
001073270100001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
The author-created version that incorporates referee comments and is the accepted for publication version Available from 01.10.2024
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Does the Battle Ever End? Negative Interaction between Political Actors outside of and during Campaigns.
Publication type
Subject
Law 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 01.10.2023
Last edited 10.03.2024
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