Issue ownership is a concept in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

that states that a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

owns an issue if it is perceived by voters as the most competent party to solve a particular problem. According to the concept, a party does better if issues they own play a major role in the election campaign. The concept was first introduced in 1983 in the book ''Explaining and predicting elections''. The concept was later elaborated and popularized by the article "Issue Ownership in Presidential Elections, with a 1980 Case Study" by John Petrocik in 1996.

Definition and causes

Although there is no current consensus on the exact definition of issue ownership, various political scientists have dedicated their work to understand 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 Petrocik's, 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 owner of an issue.

Left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

parties for example are generally owner of the issue

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

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. However, other research indicates that trespassing can also assist candidates in winning elections by appealing to politically moderate citizens.

Examples per country

Netherlands

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( , CDA) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in the Netherlands. Formed as a federation in 1975 by the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and the Christian Historical ...

: Norms and values *

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( , PVV) is a right-wing populist, far-right political party in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders is the founder, party leader, and sole registered member of the party. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Wilders' one-ma ...

Immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

GreenLeft (, ; GL) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the ...

: Environment/

Climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

United States

* Republican Party:

Crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

taxes A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

, moral values,

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

* Democratic Party:

Welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

, and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

References

{{Reflist Political science Administrative theory