A Review of Public Issue Salience: Concepts, Determinants and Effects on Voting
| Author | James Dennison |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918819264 |
| Published date | 01 November 2019 |
| Date | 01 November 2019 |
| Subject Matter | State of the Art |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929918819264
Political Studies Review
2019, Vol. 17(4) 436 –446
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929918819264
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A Review of Public Issue
Salience: Concepts,
Determinants and
Effects on Voting
James Dennison
Abstract
In this article, I offer a review of the uses and findings regarding public issue salience in the political
science literature, with a focus on electoral behaviour. I argue that in spite of the increased use of
issue salience in recent years, with impressive explanatory results, the concept of issue salience
remains underspecified and, at times, contradictory and that its antecedents remain relatively
unknown. This is likely to have led to serious shortcomings when attempting to explain recent
changes to party systems and electoral results in advanced democracies.
Keywords
issue salience, most important issue, most important problem, agenda setting, issue voting
Accepted: 16 November 2018
Issue salience is a pervasive concept in political science. In particular, public – as opposed
to elite – issue salience is a component of major theories of electoral behaviour, is regu-
larly used as a mediating variable in studies of voting and is often measured in election
surveys. In this article, I offer a review of public issue salience. I argue that the concept
remains underspecified, reflecting a lack of deeper understanding of its properties and
reflected in its varying forms of measurement. Because it is rarely used as the direct inde-
pendent or dependent variable of interest, both its causes and direct effects remain unclear
or underutilised. This is likely to have led to shortcomings elsewhere. Furthermore, the
erratic variation in salience in recent years in Europe suggest that key assumptions about
its properties as a highly stable attitude formed early in life require updating. Finally, the
causes of variation in public issue salience remain relatively unknown outside of agenda-
setting theory, which has been shown to suffer shortcomings. However, when used, pub-
lic issue salience has been shown to offer impressive explanatory results for electoral
behaviour.
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy
Corresponding author:
James Dennison, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence, FI, Italy.
Email: james.dennison@eui.eu
819264PSW0010.1177/1478929918819264Political Studies ReviewDennison
research-article2019
State of the Art
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