Avoidance or Engagement? Issue Convergence in U.S. Presidential Campaigns, 1960-2000

Abstract

A widely noted and oft-decried characteristic of campaigns in the United States is the tendency of the competing sides to talk past each other—to avoid engaging with one another on the same issues. We bring a massive database on statements by the major-party presidential candidates and other campaign spokespersons in the 1960 through 2000 elections to bear on the question of issue convergence. Far from the exception, a high degree of similarity in the issue emphases of the two sides appears to have been the norm in these campaigns. This result suggests the need to rethink some influential empirical, formal, and normative perspectives on campaigns.

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