Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Issue Convergence in Presidential Campaigns

  • Published:
Political Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This effort seeks to expand our understanding of the supply-side of the campaign process by investigating how candidate competition for agenda control affects occurrences of issue convergence (the discussion of the same issues by competing candidates) in campaigns for the presidency. More specifically, I integrate hypotheses suggested by extant literature into a framework that captures the factors that motivate presidential candidates’ selection of issues and the factors that affect their decisions to address issues also discussed by their opponents. These hypotheses are tested with duration analysis and data gathered from all available campaign advertisements produced by candidates competing in the 1976 through 1996 presidential elections. The results indicate that occurrences of issue convergences are quite frequent in presidential campaigns and that candidates’ decisions to address the same issues are affected by an issue’s saliency and partisan ownership, as well by changes in the campaign environment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • John A. Aldrich D. Griffin John (2003) The presidency and the campaign: creating voter priorities in the 2000 election. Michael Nelson (Eds) The Presidency and the Political System EditionNumber7 Congressional Quarterly Press Washington DC 239–256

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephen Ansolabehere Iyengar Shanto (1995) Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate. Free Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stephen Ansolabehere Shanto Iyengar (1994) ArticleTitleRiding the wave and claiming ownership over issues. Public Opinion Quarterly 58 335–357

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank R. Baumgartner Bryan D. Jones (1993) Agendas and Instability in American Politics University of Chicago Press Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier Zorn Christopher (2002) ArticleTitleDuration models for repeated events. The Journal of Politics 64 1069–1094

    Google Scholar 

  • Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier Zorn Christopher (2001) ArticleTitleDuration models and proportional hazards in political science. American Journal of Political Science 45 972–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Ian Budge (1993) Issues, dimensions, and agenda change in postwar democracies: longterm trends in party election programs and newspaper reports in twenty-three democracies. William Riker (Eds) Agenda Formation University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor 41–80

    Google Scholar 

  • Paul Burstein (2003) ArticleTitleThe impact of public opinion on public policy: a review and an agenda. Political Research Quarterly 56 29–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennis Chong (1996) Creating common frames of reference on political issues Diana C. Mutz Paul M. Sniderman Richard A. Brody (Eds) Political Persuasion and Attitude Change. University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor 195–224

    Google Scholar 

  • David F. Damore (2004) ArticleTitleThe dynamics of issue ownership in presidential campaigns. Political Research Quarterly 57 391–397

    Google Scholar 

  • David F. Damore (2003) ArticleTitleUsing campaign advertisements to assess campaign processes. Journal of Political Marketing 3 39–59

    Google Scholar 

  • David F. Damore (2002) ArticleTitleCandidate strategy and the decision to go negative. Political Research Quarterly 55 669–685

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthony Downs (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy. Harper New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray Edelman (1964) The Symbolic Uses of Politics. University of Illinois Press Urbana, IL

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles H. Franklin (1991) ArticleTitleEschewing obfuscation: campaigns and perception of U.S. senate incumbents. American Political Science Review 85 1193–1214

    Google Scholar 

  • John G. Geer (1998) Campaigns, party competition, and political advertising John G. Geer (Eds) Politicians and Party Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore 186–217

    Google Scholar 

  • Peter Goldman Mark Thomas M. DeFrank Andrew Miller Murr Mathews Tom (1992) Quest for the Presidency. Texas A & M University Press College Station, TX

    Google Scholar 

  • Holbrook, Thomas M. (1996). Do Campaigns Matter? Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Iyengar, Shanto, and Donald R. Kinder (1987). News That Matters. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

  • Lawrence Jacobs Robert Y. Shapiro (1994) ArticleTitleIssues, candidate image, and priming: the use of private polls in kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. American Political Science Review 88 527–540

    Google Scholar 

  • Gary C. Jacobson (1990) The Electoral Origins of Divided Government. Westview Press Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryan D. Jones (1994) Reconceiving Decision-Making in Democratic Politics. University of Chicago Press Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim Fridkin Kahn Patrick J. Kenney (1999) The Spectacle of U.S. Senate Campaigns. Princeton University Press Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • John Kingdon (1984) Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Little, Brown, and Company Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Richard R. Lau Sigelman Lee Heldman Caroline Babbitt Paul (1999) ArticleTitleThe effects of negative political advertisements: a meta-analytic assessment. American Political Science Review 93 851–876

    Google Scholar 

  • Arthur Lupia Mathew D. McCubbins (1998) The Democratic Dilemma. Cambridge University Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Richard E. Petty John T. Cacioppo (1981) Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. William C. Brown Dubuque, IA

    Google Scholar 

  • John R. Petrocik (1996) ArticleTitleIssue ownership in presidential elections, with a 1980 case study. American Journal of Political Science 40 825–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrocik, John R., William L. Benoit, and Glenn J. Hansen (2003–2004). Issue ownership and presidential campaigning, 1952–2000. Political Science Quarterly 118: 599–626.

  • Michael Pfau H. C. Kenski (1990) Attack Politics: Strategy and Defense. Prager New York

    Google Scholar 

  • R. L. Prentice B. J. Williams A. V. Peterson (1981) ArticleTitleOn the regression analysis of multivariate failure time data. Biometrika 68 373–70

    Google Scholar 

  • William H. Riker (1993) Introduction William Riker (Eds) Agenda Formation University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor 1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • David O. Sears (1993) Symbolic politics: a socio-psychological theory Shanto Iyengar William McGuire (Eds) Explorations in Political Psychology Duke University Press Durham NC 113–149

    Google Scholar 

  • Daron R. Shaw (1999a) ArticleTitleThe effect of tv ads and candidate appearances on statewide presidential votes, 1988–96. American Political Science Review 93 345–362

    Google Scholar 

  • Daron R. Shaw (1999b) ArticleTitleThe methods behind the madness: presidential electoral college strategies, 1988–1996. Journal of Politics 61 893–913

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenneth A. Shepsle Barry R. Weingast (Eds) (1995) Positive Theories of Congressional Institutions. University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor

    Google Scholar 

  • Adam F. Simon (2002) The Winning Message: Candidate Behavior, Campaign Discourse, and Democracy. Cambridge University Press New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stergios Skaperdas Bernard Grofman (1995) ArticleTitleModeling negative campaigning. American Political Science Review 89 49–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Tom W. Smith (1985) ArticleTitleThe polls: america’s most important problems, part I: national and international. Public Opinion Quarterly 49 264–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Constantine J. Spiliotes Vavreck Lynn (2002) ArticleTitleCampaign advertising: partisan convergence and divergence? Journal of Politics 64 249–261

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Box 455029, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154

    David F. Damore

Authors
  1. David F. Damore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David F. Damore.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Damore, D.F. Issue Convergence in Presidential Campaigns. Polit Behav 27, 71–97 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-005-3077-6

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-005-3077-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation