Replication data for: Issue engagement in election campaigns: the impact of electoral incentives and organizational constraints

It is easier for voters to make informed electoral choices when parties talk about the same issues. Yet parties may decide against such ‘issue engagement’. We hypothesize that issue engagement between parties is more likely (a) when the similarity of their policy positions means that both parties have clear electoral incentives to talk about the same topics and (b) when parties face few organizational constraints in terms of campaign resources. Our empirical analysis of 2,453 press releases by Austrian parties shows that ideological proximity and party resources affect the level of issue engagement. These findings suggest that issue engagement is less likely precisely where it is needed most, which has important implications for understanding the democratic quality of election campaigns.当各政党就相同议题进行讨论时，选民更易于做出基于充分信息的选举抉择。然而政党却可能选择不开展此类“议题参与（issue engagement）”。我们提出如下研究假说：政党间的议题参与更易发生的情形包括：(a) 双方政策立场趋同，此时两党均具备明确的选举动机去讨论相同议题；(b) 政党在竞选资源维度面临的组织约束较少。我们针对奥地利政党发布的2453份新闻稿所开展的实证分析表明，意识形态趋同性与政党资源均会对议题参与程度产生影响。上述研究结果显示，恰恰是在最需要开展议题参与的场合，此类行为反而更难出现，这对于理解竞选活动的民主质量具有重要意义。