Page 220 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge
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P1: KaF
                          0521828317c08.xml  CY425/Esser  0521828317  May 22, 2004  16:31






                                                        Hanspeter Kriesi


                                 National
                                 Context



                                               Issue-Specific
                                                                  Strategies  Public   Impact
                                                Conflict                    Opinion    on Policy
                                               Configuration






                                 Type of
                                 Issue

                                Figure 8.2 Causal Framework for Determining the Strategies of Mobilizing
                                Public Opinion and Their Impact

                                               NATIONAL CONTEXT CONDITIONS

                                Except for the studies by Ferree et al. (2002) and Koopmans and Statham
                                (1999; 2000) previous studies on the role of the public sphere for polit-
                                ical decision making did not proceed comparatively. Although a trend
                                toward an audience democracy is noticeable in all liberal democracies,
                                it is still reasonable to assume that the institutional context conditions
                                decisively shape the way this trend is expressing itself in a given country.
                                In addition, the issue-specific context is also very likely to have a decisive
                                impact on the kinds of strategies that will be used in the public sphere –
                                independently of the institutional context. Together, the institutional
                                context and the issue-specific context shape the structure of issue-specific
                                conflictconfigurations,which,inturn,willdeterminethetypeofstrategies
                                chosen by the relevant actors.
                                   Figure 8.2 illustrates the general relationship between the three sets of
                                factors. The basic assumption is that even if we focus on countries that
                                share similar cultural, economic, and politico-institutional characteris-
                                tics (“most similar systems design”) and even if we select the same issues,
                                we will findagreat variation in the range of actors and their respective
                                strategies in trying to shape public opinion.


                                  advertisement client of the country), she achieved amazingly little with her public
                                  relations-campaigns.


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