No Substitute for Competence

Issue ownership has become an important focus in studies of voting behavior. Its origins and effects, however, are likely to vary across electoral contexts. Simon Lanz shows in his broadly comparative study how parties come to "own'' issues, how this issue ownership affects their vote choices and how these effects depend on the electoral context. Using novel approaches enables Lanz to make a path-breaking contribution to the study of issue ownership. -- Simon Hug, Université de Genève

This book represents a major contribution to the analysis of how citizens perceive parties' issue competence, and how these perceptions influence their voting choices. It is theoretically and empirically ambitious, and it demonstrates convincingly that issue competence should be seen as a central factor in the study of electoral competition. -- Romain Lachat, Sciences Po Paris

Simon Lanz's innovative and important new book offers a comprehensive, cross-national study of issue ownership. His careful, convincing analysis shows where party competence perceptions come from and when and why they matter for how people vote. This study will be essential reading for all those who want to understand how perceptions of competence explain voting decisions and election outcomes. -- Markus Wagner, University of Vienna

Simon Lanz is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests include electoral behaviour, comparative politics and quantitative methods. Simon Lanz has published peer-reviewed articles on the dynamics of issue ownership voting, the determinants of individual turnout, and consistent decision making in direct democracies.