Different modifications of the Downsian spatial model have been proposed in order to build more realistic utility functions as a base for party competition by including valence and partisan bias. However, it has rarely been investigated whether specific policy dimensions play the same role in every voter’s own vote calculus. Yet it can be empirically shown that voters weigh concrete issues differently. Groups with higher and lower salience can be distinguished based on their involvement or affectedness. This alters the formal game of party competition, since voters differ in their levels of responsiveness to changes in parties’ policy standpoints. This becomes especially important if high salience voters are unevenly distributed over the policy space. I look at the consequences of varying issue salience on parties’ policy standpoints from a formal modeling perspective. Then I empirically analyze the intensely debated issue of an abortion law in Germany between 1980 and 1990.
