Issue Ownership

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Definitions and Causes Revision:

Although there is no current consensus on the exact definition of issue ownership, various political scientists have dedicated their work to understanding its meaning and implications. Political scientist Rune Stubager defines issue ownership as "the perception in a voter’s mind that a specific party over the long term is most competent at handling—in the sense of delivering desired outputs on—a given issue".

Some older definitions, including Petrociks, have a broader definition of issue ownership which includes short-term perception. This perception is the result of how governing parties are perceived to have handled issues. If these results were disappointing, their competence in the eyes of voters declines. Opposition parties can benefit from this decline and become short-term owners of an issue. Left-wing parties, for example, are generally owners of the issue unemployment but lose ownership when unemployment has risen while they were in government.

Kevin K Banda defines issue ownership theory as the notion that candidates should focus on the issues associated with their parties and avoid issues owned by an opposing party. When candidates do encroach on issues owned by an opposing party, Banda defines this as the act of “trespassing”. Research suggests that candidates’ trespassing can negatively impact candidacies (Simon 2002; Iyengar & Valentino 2000). However, other research (Holian, 2004) indicates that trespassing can also assist candidates in winning elections by appealing to politically moderate citizens.

Gendered Issue Ownership

In addition to issue ownership by party, political scientists have also attributed issue ownership theory to candidates’ gender. Lindsey Meeks discusses the cultural assumption that politics is a masculine domain, causing female political candidates to walk a fine line between adhering to their natural identity and adopting masculine qualities to succeed. Meeks points out that voters prefer candidates with more masculine identities (Huddy & Terkildsen, 1993b), forcing women to appropriate masculine traits to gain recognition.

Gendered issue ownership has also been reflected in the media. Results from the Meeks study determined that female candidates receive a disproportionately higher level of coverage examining their competence than their male counterparts. Results also showed that women receive higher levels of "novelty coverage," which includes news that identifies the differences between males and females in leadership roles.

References:

Banda. (2016). Issue Ownership, Issue Positions, and Candidate Assessment. Political Communication, 33(4), 651–666. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2016.1192569

Banda. (2021). Issue ownership cues and candidate support. Party Politics, 27(3), 552–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068819869901

Simon, A. F. (2002). The winning message: Candidate behavior, campaign discourse, and democracy. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Huddy, & Terkildsen, N. (1993). The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Office. Political Research Quarterly, 46(3), 503–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/106591299304600304

Holian, D. B. (2004). He’s stealing my issues! Clinton’s crime rhetoric and the dynamics of issue ownership. Political Behavior, 26(June), 95–124.

Lyengar, S., & Valentino, N. N. (2000). Who says what? Source credibility as a mediator of campaign advertising. In A. Lupia & M. D. McCubbins (Eds.), Elements of reason: Cognition, choice, and the bounds of rationality (pp. 108–129). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Meeks. (2012). Is She “Man Enough”? Women Candidates, Executive Political Offices, and News Coverage. Journal of Communication, 62(1), 175–193. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01621.x

Simon, A. F. (2002). The winning message: Candidate behavior, campaign discourse, and democracy. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

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