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17 Const. Pol. Econ. 5 (2006)

handle is hein.journals/constpe17 and id is 1 raw text is: Constit Polit Econ (2006) 17:5-13
DOI 10.1007/s10602-006-6790-1
ORIlAt AkI t IL
The effects of issue salience on political decision-making
Torsten J. Selck
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006
Abstract Game-theoretic models of political decision-making regard policy outcomes as
a combined result of actor preferences and institutions. This paper explores the effects of
adding relative issue salience to the analysis. I focus on non-cooperative models of
complete and perfect information that are based on the concept of structure-induced
equilibrium (Shepsle in Am J Polit Sci 23(1):27-59, 1979). Assuming a progressive
agenda-setter and two conservative voters, I show how a change of the relative issue
salience for players in a game results in a different equilibrium outcome in a political
decision-making body.
Keywords    Decision-making  Game theory  Structure-induced equilibrium  Issue
salience
JEL Classification  C72  D72
1. Introduction
For an organisation in order to change its policies, game theoretic models assume that actor
preferences and institutional arrangements such as the price mechanisms or a certain voting
rules are of central importance (Kreps, 1990: 3-6). Institutions are assumed to 'channel'
preferences by specifying the strategies which actors in a decision situation have at their
disposal. Whenever an individual is confronted with having to decide on two issues that are
part of the same decision situation, there might be a difference in how important each of
the issues are for the actor. This paper analyzes how the relative importance of one issue
T. J. Selck (E)
School of Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences,
University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD Nottingham, UK
e-mail: torsten.selck@nottingham.ac.uk
h Springer

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