Salient Issue Research Articles

Free Movement and Welfare in the European Union: The Social Consequences of the Right to Exit

The relationship between the European Union's (EU) free movement regime and welfare has received ample scholarly attention. However, this has almost exclusively been from the perspective of destination countries. We know surprisingly little about the “other side” of the migration phenomenon, i.e., the welfare-related implications of large-scale emigration, which predominantly takes place from peripheral EU member states toward the core. In this paper, we break new ground using an original survey fielded in 15 EU member states in 2021. We ask how worries about immigration and emigration shape people's attitudes about social spending in their country of origin and whether they are associated with preferences for EU involvement in social policy. We show that, on average, immigration is salient across the board, but more so in core states (West and North), while emigration is a more salient issue in peripheral states (East and West). In terms of policy preferences, regression analyses indicate that worries about emigration versus immigration are linked in an inverted manner to social policy. Indeed, a preoccupation with incoming migration increases opposition to higher government social spending, while it is irrelevant for support for a stronger EU role in social matters; by contrast, a preoccupation with emigration increases support for both higher government social spending and a stronger EU role in social matters.

Hey Google, What is in the News? The Influence of Conversational Agents on Issue Salience

The emerging use of Conversational Agents (CAs), such as Google Assistant, highlights the role of algorithmic gatekeeping power in news consumption. However, our knowledge of the effects of CAs on shaping the public’s perception of the most important topics (issue salience) is limited. To investigate this, we conducted a seven-day longitudinal survey in the Netherlands, comparing the most important issues reported by users (N = 352) across various channels, including CAs, social media, and news websites. Our aim was to analyze how CAs influence the transfer of issue salience from the channel to the user. While our hypotheses were not supported, different patterns emerged. Users consuming news through CAs exhibited a have a lower probability of agreeing on the most important issues in the Netherlands compared to participants consuming information on social media and news websites. This suggests that news consumption through CAs may offer less shared context compared to other channels. Furthermore, trust in the channel and attention to the news were found to be significant predictors of agreement on issue salience. These findings raise important questions for further research, particularly regarding the impact and democratic role of CAs within the broader news ecosystem.

The social determinants of CSR practice: Between headquarters policy and local mobilization

In this article we examine the social determinants of CSR practices by mining firms in the territories where they exploit resources. We argue that mining firms are caught between headquarters policy on CSR, and demands emanating from locally-based societal groups. Headquarters policy provides a process-based framework for engaging with stakeholders, a menu of favoured activities, and guidance on issues of global or home-country salience. But social mobilization explains the intensity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments and the timing of spending. We situate the analysis within the literature on the influence of social movements on policy implementation. The empirical evidence for the paper is based on a comparative case study of the influence of activists over corporate social responsibility policy and practice in the mining sector in Chile and Argentina, using both secondary sources and primary field research.

Theorizing issue-driven public attention and expectations in audience responses to corporate sociopolitical activism: A mixed-method analysis

This study develops an issue-driven framework to theorize the role of public attention, support, and expectations in audience responses to corporations’ engagement in contested issues. Based on a mixed-method study using an online survey (N = 817), we investigate how two forms of expectations—normative and predictive—are associated with motivating cognitions, attitudes toward the social impacts of corporate sociopolitical activism (CSA), and buying intentions. Thematic analysis reveals a four-quadrant typology characterized by varying degrees of public attention and support: legitimate engagement, identify alignment, emergent norm, and obscure practice. The structural equation modeling results demonstrate that predictive expectations are a consistent antecedent to the perceived company–issue fit, perceived issue salience, and issue position. In contrast, the associations between normative expectations, the perceived company–issue congruence, and cognitive involvement are contingent on issue types. Perceived advocacy fit and cognitive involvement positively predict attitudes toward the social impacts of CSA. Buycotting intentions, however, are only determined by individuals’ issue position.

Don’t Cry No More: A Comparative Study of U.S. Domestic and Foreign Restrictions on Riot Control Agent Use

ABSTRACT What catalysed the changing status of riot control agents (RCAs hereafter) use in wartime? Is that the same catalyst causing domestic policy change for RCAs today? The relationship between war and technology is dynamic, with regular advances to make militaries and police more effective. Some emergent chemical-based technologies are quickly restricted as chemical weapons; others are deemed permissible in perpetuity. However, there may be a third option where classification can change from permissible to restricted over time. We use a structured, focused comparative case study of the United States to understand the INUS causes of this shift at both the domestic and international level of policymaking, particularly where RCAs like tear gas are concerned. To determine this, we ask (1) what processes led to policy change; (2) which factors or forces motivated policy change; and (3) were the same factors present at both the domestic and international level of policy change? By investigating these questions, we find that normative logics are necessary but not sufficient for causing RCA’s changing status. Factors like social pressure and issue saliency, among others, create the necessary environment for norms to impact the RCAs’ status.

On Issue Survival: News Media and How Political Issues Remain Salient in the Face of Crisis

AbstractWhat happens when a crisis such as COVID-19 fully occupies the political and media agenda? Do previous political concerns, such as those on migration, remain salient? Here, I propose and validate a model of issue survival during times of crisis. I argue that issues remain salient when individuals are able to cognitively link “displaced” issues with the ongoing crisis. Such connections between displaced issues and the crisis can be influenced by the media, who, through a process of networked agenda setting, help establish connections between issues. I test this model on the salience of migration during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland and Germany. Leveraging panel surveys administered before and during lockdowns, I show that the issue of migration was displaced during the crisis. Nevertheless, as proposed by the model, this decline in issue salience did not occur for individuals connecting migration to the pandemic. Combining panels with individual-level media consumption data obtained through webtracking, I provide evidence that issue survival was significantly related to the consumption of news stories linking migration to the COVID-19 crisis. The study raises questions about the flow of public opinion during moments of mass uncertainty and highlights the key role media consumption can play in understanding previous issues in new a light.

Another path to electoral reform: Cohort replacement and electoral issues for rule changes in Japan

AbstractThe literature of electoral reform explains politicians' preferences and social forces such as working‐class power or expansions of the suffrage are the major factors that bring about a change in electoral rules. However, we argue that generational replacement and electoral issue effects lead politicians to introduce a new electoral system for their electoral survival in future. By examining Japan's surveys for pre‐ and postreform elections, we show that the entrance of new generation and salient issue concerns dissolve electoral bases of political parties and finally give rise to a change in the rules of the game for the greater electoral stability that political elites desire.

Left-Wing Populism and Environmental Issues: An Analysis of La France Insoumise’s ‘Popular Environmentalism’

This article proposes to explore the interaction between populism and environmentalism in the discourse of populist radical left parties, through a case study of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s parties, Parti de gauche (2008–2016) and La France insoumise (from 2016). While an emerging literature primarily investigated the populist framing of populist radical right parties’ climate (sceptic) discourse, the article analyses how a populist radical left party incorporates environmental issues into its agenda and the extent to which environmentalism and populism concretely interweave. Using mixed-methods, we first show that the logics of party competition and the growing salience of environmental issues led La France insoumise to gradually develop an ambitious green agenda. We then show that there is evidence for a populism/environmentalism nexus that could be defined as ‘green populism’. La France insoumise’s ecosocialist ideology combines to anti-elitism and people-centrism to blame the environmental crisis on the ‘oligarchy’ and to promote a green transition that would protect the people.

Auditor‐client reciprocity: Evidence from forecast‐issuing brokerage houses and forecasted companies sharing the same auditor

AbstractWe examine whether auditors share private information about some clients in their portfolio to benefit other clients (i.e., brokerage houses). This is a salient issue in China, where there are concerns about auditors leaking information to related parties, and where we observe variation in connectedness between brokerage houses and companies through shared auditors. We document that brokerage houses that share an auditor with a company issue comparatively more accurate earnings forecasts for that company. Next, cross‐sectional variation in forecast accuracy is associated with several proxies for brokerage houses' and auditors' costs and incentives to share information (e.g., investor protection, media coverage, public listing status, and the client's economic importance). Finally, auditors are more likely to secure future audits from IPO deals sponsored by brokerage house clients with higher forecast accuracy. Collectively, our evidence is suggestive of auditors sharing private information with brokerage houses in anticipation of reciprocity in the form of lucrative future engagements.

Finding common ground in uncertain times: assessing the prospect of multilateralism in transatlantic climate change policy

Climate change policy stands out as a highly salient issue in European and in American public opinion. This article contends that a significant transatlantic consensus supports multilateral action on climate change. Leveraging a broad review of survey data in our time series, the analysis identifies a clear pattern of increasing agreement in public opinion. Yet progress in joint transatlantic climate change action has been rather slow and fragmented. To explain this puzzle, we connect these findings to pitfalls for transatlantic cooperation by weighing partisan polarization and regional differences in the U.S. and country variations in the EU as plausible hurdles to policy consistency. We argue that, beneath broader trends in shared concerns, roadblocks on the national level inhibit the implementation of coherent and effective transatlantic climate change policies.

Mainstream parties and global warming: What determines parties’ engagement in climate protection?

AbstractGlobal warming is not only a serious threat for humanity but increasingly structures political competition in Western Europe. The rise of green (niche) parties and public awareness of the issue pressure mainstream parties to emphasise climate protection. Yet, while scholars reflect on the factors influencing mainstream parties’ environmental agendas, we know little about what triggers climate standpoints and about the role public opinion plays in this process. This study measures the salience of climate protection in 292 election manifestos of mainstream parties in 10 Western European countries since the 1990s and estimates the impact of different factors on their climate agenda using OLS regressions. The findings suggest that green parties are not the driving factor, and that it is the public salience of environmental issues and pressure from the Fridays for Future movement influencing mainstream parties’ agendas. Accordingly, mainstream parties seem to be responsive to public opinion pressure adopting climate protection stances. The study further proposes a different measure of niche party success than that used in previous studies.

Diffusion dynamics and digital movement: The emergence and proliferation of the German-speaking #FridaysForFuture network on Twitter

ABSTRACT Diffusion is a long-established concept that deals with the mechanisms explaining the prevalence of social movements. However, previous empirical studies on digital movement merely used diffusion as a term referring to increasing numbers of posts or public attention, without distinguishing what is diffused nor asking how information is diffused. Studies applying social network analysis have restricted themselves to retweet networks from a static perspective and emphasized the main actors and critical messages driven by the crowds. While the previous studies examined information diffusion as an outcome, they were unable to reveal the underlying processes that define how digitally networked movements spread over time among crowds embedded in different communities. As a case study, this paper investigates how the German-speaking network #FridaysForFuture was facilitated and contested through different diffusion dynamics. By inferring a diffusion network based on 237,892 retweeting sequences and the following/follower relationships of the 51,803 engaged actors in the early stages of #FridaysForFuture, it quantifies the digitally networked movement from a top-down perspective: the network, the tweets, and the retweets, concerning aspects of both actor and content. The findings suggest the development of digitally networked movements depends on their ability to influence and spread among different networked publics. The diffusion mechanisms of information, discourses, and beliefs of digitally networked movements were mainly enabled by, and flowed through, pre-existing networks rather than situational spontaneity. However, they varied according to issue salience and were distinguished by the network structures, political positions, ideological lines, and geographical proximities of the involved communities.

Disputes over intellectual rights in Brazil: interest organisations and their impacts on copyright law

Previous studies on lobbying outlined that business groups are more influential on low salient issues due to their organisation, unity, and expertise. This study addresses the causal mechanisms behind issue salience and business influence through an in-depth case study regarding copyright reform in Brazil. By employing a bibliographical and a documentary research, I analysed the statuses and legislative agendas of groups and other policy participants interested in either maintaining or changing copyright laws. Through the investigation of public hearings and draft bills discussed at a special committee of the Chamber of Deputies, I mapped the policy participants and their political preferences. Combining process-tracing and preference attainment, the analysis sought to identify the winners and losers in this debate as well as the strategies they implemented to achieve their goals. In contrast to other studies, the case under analysis revealed that certain participants acted as countervailing forces against powerful groups, though business organisations still succeed to achieve small concessions.

The shifting issue content of left–right identification: cohort differences in Western Europe

Over the last decades, the rising salience of new issues has transformed politics in Western Europe. How has this transformation affected citizens’ left–right identities? This study shows how new issues have become integrated into the meaning of left–right among Western Europeans through generational replacement. Mechanisms of political socialisation and elite cue taking imply that how strongly an issue is associated with left–right identities should reflect this issue’s politicisation during a cohort’s formative years. In line with this, an analysis of the European Social Survey for 12 Western European countries from 2002 to 2018 reveals that environmental protection and immigration attitudes are more strongly associated with left–right positions among those born later. Attitudes towards redistribution tend to be less relevant within more recent cohorts in some countries, though period effects after the European debt crisis point in the opposite direction. This study enhances our understanding of the evolution of political conflict.

Electoral Competition and Strategic Intra-Coalition Oversight in Parliament: The Case of the Bipolar Belgian Polity

Although research has highlighted how parties use parliamentary tools to monitor coalition partners and ensure that they loyally execute compromises, the role of electoral competition in intra-coalition oversight is less well documented. Do coalition parties actually ‘police the bargain’ or do they rather use their tools to publicly target and potentially discredit parties with whom they will eventually compete for votes? Although generally difficult to disentangle, this study focuses on the unique Belgian polity, where Flemish and francophone parties govern together in a federal cabinet but compete electorally in two separate party systems. Multivariate analyses of MPs’ use of parliamentary questions between 1995 and 2018 (N = 30,661) confirm that coalition partners are particularly scrutinized when they are ideologically distant or control salient portfolios. Contrary to expectations, however, electoral competitors are not targeted more intensively, nor does direct electoral competition decrease the relative importance of ideological divisiveness or issue salience. These findings provide new insights into how and to what extent parliaments serve as arenas for intra-coalition governance.

Populist radical right beyond Europe

Abstract Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is one of the longest ruling among contemporary populist radical right parties (PRR). For nearly two decades, the AKP has shown tremendous success in achieving electoral dominance and political control. This article argues that AKP’s success lies in its ability to reconfigure the issue salience in Turkish politics by bringing the secular-conservative cleavage into the center of political competition. However, as this article shows, while the government’s framing of conservative/religious values was initially populist, as the Party consolidated its power, populism became secondary to nativism. This nativist turn is characterized by an emphasis on the foreignness of “the elites” and is shaped by secularization of the public sphere and antiwesternism. Overall, AKP has not presented a fundamental opposition to the “establishment” but brought together many components of Turkey’s institutional and cultural structure and radicalized patterns already present in earlier eras.

A New Social Conflict on Globalisation-Related Issues in Germany? A Longitudinal Perspective

We draw on cleavage theory to assess the emergence of a social conflict concerning globalisation-related issues among the German population between 1989 and 2019. We argue that issue salience and opinion polarisation are key conditions for a successful and sustainable political mobilisation of citizens and thus for the emergence of a social conflict. In line with globalisation cleavage theory, we hypothesised that issue salience as well as overall and between-group opinion polarisation on globalisation-related issues have increased over time. Our study considers four globalisation-related issues: immigration, the European Union (EU), economic liberalism, and the environment. While the salience of the EU and economic liberalism issues remained low during the observed period, we found a recent increase in salience for the issues of immigration (since 2015) and the environment (since 2018). Furthermore, our results point to rather stable attitudes on globalisation-related issues among the German population: We did not find any consistent evidence of an increase in overall or between-group polarisation over time. In conclusion, the idea of an emerging conflict around globalisation-related issues among the German population finds very little empirical support.

Advocacy in Outreach: A BHSc Outreach Case Competition 2023

The “Advocacy in Outreach” case competition hosted by BHSc Outreach at McMaster University encouraged students identify a salient healthcare issue in the Hamilton community and then develop an evidence-backed initiative to address it. McMaster students were challenged to assume the role of health advocates by practicing their community-oriented thinking and ability to creatively problem-solve for the benefit of others. Fostering this thinking among our future health leaders is important since Canadians face a diverse range of healthcare issues from gaps in accessibility to staffing shortages to growing health inequity. To embark on the path toward solutions, participants created abstracts that outlined their plans for raising awareness of a pertinent health issue or a community-level program that supports vulnerable populations. The following abstracts are well-considered proposals that aim to proactively address challenges and improve health outcomes in Hamilton. Through this competition, BHSc Outreach hopes to inspire students to take further steps to contribute to their community in the future.

Quality-checking the new normal: trial modality in online jury decision-making research.

We sought to examine differences between videotaped and written trial materials on verdicts, perceptions of trial parties, quality check outcomes, perceived salience of racial issues, and emotional states in a trial involving a Black or White defendant. We predicted that verdicts and ratings of trial parties would be similar for those participants viewing a videotaped trial and those reading a written transcript. However, we suspected that emotional states might be heightened for those watching a video and that those reading transcripts would perform better on quality checks regarding trial content (but worse on those involving trial party characteristics, including defendant race). Participants (N = 139 after removing those who did not meet our threshold for data quality) recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk were randomly assigned to watch a video or read a transcript of a trial involving an alleged murder of a police officer. They completed a questionnaire probing their verdict, perceptions of trial parties, perceived salience of racial issues, and emotional state, and responded to a series of quality checks. Participants in the videotape condition performed significantly worse on quality checks than did those in the transcript condition. There were no significant differences between modalities in terms of verdict or perceived salience of racial issues. Some other differences emerged between conditions, however, with more positive perceptions of the pathologist and police officer in the transcript condition, and more negative emotion elicited by the trial involving a White defendant in the videotape condition only. There were no meaningful differences between videotaped and written trial materials in terms of outcome (verdict), but the presence of some trial party rating and emotional state differences stemming from modality epitomizes the internal/ecological validity trade-off in jury research. Our quality check results indicate that written transcripts may work better for obtaining valid data online. Regardless of modality, researchers must be diligent in crafting quality checks to ensure that participants are attending to the stimulus materials, particularly as more research shifts online.

Determining decidability: How issue salience divergence structures party systems and affects citizens

AbstractThis paper argues that issue salience divergence – the extent to which parties in a party system diverge in their allocation of salience across issues – is a key characteristic of party system decidability. Elections do not only matter in that politicians and parties with different policy positions may come to power. They can also matter if competing elites emphasize different issues. Using data from the MARPOR project and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, I demonstrate that voters perceive greater differences between parties when parties propose agendas that diverge with respect to issue salience. Furthermore, I demonstrate that perceptions of differences between parties mediate the effect of issue salience divergence on respondents’ satisfaction with democracy and self‐reported voter turnout. These findings indicate that salience‐based differentiation influences the quality of party systems alongside the traditional party system characteristics with important implications for public opinion and political behavior.