Thus far, our expectations have been very general. We have posited that the public is responsive to policy change and that policymakers represent public preferences. We do not expect the model to apply in all policy domains in all countries, however. Indeed, we expect that the model will vary systematically with both issue salience and institutional characteristics.

ADDING SALIENCE

In its simplest sense, a salient issue is one that is politically important, one that people care about, and one on which they have meaningful opinions that structure party support and candidate evaluation (see, e.g., Miller, Miller, Raine and Browne 1976; Abramowitz 1994; van der Eijk and Franklin 1996). Candidates are likely to take positions on the issue and it is likely to form the subject of political debate (Graber 1989). People are more likely to pay attention to politicians' behavior on an important issue, as reflected in news media reporting (see, e.g., Brody 1991) or as communicated in other ways (Ferejohn and Kuklinski 1990). Politicians, meanwhile, are likely to pay attention to public opinion on the issue – it is in their self-interest to do so, after all (Hill and Hurley 1998). In issue domains that are not important, conversely, people are not likely to pay attention to politicians' behavior. Politicians, by implication, are expected to pay less attention to public opinion in these areas. This reflects a now classic perspective. (See, e.g., McCrone and Kuklinski 1979; Jones 1994; Geer 1996; Hill and Hurley 1998; Burstein 2003.