1st Edition

Issue Salience in International Politics

Edited By Kai Oppermann, Henrike Viehrig Copyright 2011
    304 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book analyses the salience of foreign and security policy issues to domestic actors, its role in the analysis of international politics and its consequences for foreign policy decision-making. It provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of issue salience and develops the state of the art.

    Beginning with a chapter on the concept of issue salience and its role in analysing international politics, it has a strong comparative framework and focuses on different domestic actors: the general public; political parties/parliaments; and the media. It features empirical studies drawn from countries in Western Europe and North America and addresses the salience of different issue areas in three key areas of international politics:

      • European Integration
      • Foreign and Security Policy
      • Transatlantic Relations

    Finally the book offers critical appraisals of the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of issue salience and the methods for measuring it.

    This volume makes an important contribution to scholarly debates on the role of public opinion in foreign affairs and on the prospects of parliamentary control of foreign and security policy. It will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, international relations and foreign policy.

     

    Kai Oppermann is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Political Science and European Affairs, University of Cologne, Germany and the Managing Editor of Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik.

    Dr. Henrike Viehrig is Assistant Professor and Chair of International Politics and Foreign Policy at the University of Cologne, Germany.

    Introduction  1. Analyzing Issue Salience in International Politics: Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Approaches Kai Oppermann and Catherine E. de Vries  Public Opinion  2. Two Indicators, One Conclusion: On the Public Salience of Foreign Affairs in Germany Before and After Reunification Harald Schoen  3. Familiarity Breeds Consent: Issue Salience and Support for the Use of Military Force Philip Everts  4. Issue Salience, Political Affiliation and the Use of Force: Germany in Comparative Perspective Jörg Jacobs  5. Salience as Priming: A Latent Class Regression Approach to EU Issue Voting in England Marco R. Steenbergen  6. How Does a Threat Become Salient? The Case of Swine Flu in Sweden Roxanna Sjöstedt  Intermediary Actors: The Media and Political Parties  7. Integrating Salience and Interpretation: A Constructivist Approach to Media Framing in the Post-Cold War Era Josef Seethaler and Gabriele Melischek  8. The Salience of Frames and their Effects on the Support for CFSP and Supranational Policy Allocation Claes H. de Vreese and Thomas Klausch  9. EU Media Salience, Instrumental Thinking and Identification with the EU Florian Stöckel  10. Experts Mistaken? The Salience of European Integration in Austrian National Election Campaigns in 2006 and 2008 Sarah Meyer  11. EU Issue Salience and Domestic Party Competition Catherine E. de Vries and Marc van de Wardt  Political Elites  12. The Cognitive Dimension of Parliamentary Influence: Trends in the Salience of Foreign Affairs Issues in the German Bundestag, 2005–10 Thomas Jäger, Kai Oppermann, Alexander Höse and Henrike Viehrig  13. Salient Issues in German Foreign Policy: Results from a 2009 Elite Survey Henning Riecke  14. The Salience of European Affairs in the United States Congress Alexander Höse  15. An Actor-Based Measure of Issue Salience: Information Acquisition and the Case of the United States Supreme Court Ryan C. Black, Amanda C. Bryan and Timothy R. Johnson  Conclusion  16. Analyzing Issue Salience in International Politics: Preliminary Findings and Open Questions Henrike Viehrig and Kai Oppermann

    Biography

    Kai Oppermann and Henrike Viehrig are Assistant Professors at the Institute for Political Science and European Affairs, University of Cologne, Germany