Competing on competence: the issue profiles of mainstream parties in Western Europe

Abstract

Despite a more volatile electoral landscape and in many countries also the electoral rise of niche parties, major mainstream parties continue to define the major political alternatives that citizens in Western Europe face when it comes to government alternatives. However, the voluminous literature on party competition in Western Europe mostly takes niche parties as the starting point to understand the consequences of the changing electoral landscape and also to understand the issue strategies of major mainstream parties. These parties should come to the centerstage. They pursue a common competence strategy which leads them to focus particularly on macroeconomics, health care, and education where they can document government competence to large parts of the electorate. This implies an increased overall similarity in their issue profiles. These findings are based on CAP coded party manifestos from seven countries since the early 1980s.