(How) Do Elections and Parties Matter? Studying the Conditional Effect of Elections and Parties on Political and Policy Change

Abstract

Policy change is a central dimension in the study of representative democracy and in particular political responsiveness. This panel investigates the role and actions of specific actors in the process: political parties. Contributions will study the influence of political and economic contexts, as well as intra-party dynamics and political competition, focusing on two broad questions: 1) How political parties produce their political agenda and positioning and what factors affect the outcome; 2) How such policy agendas influence policy change and under which conditions are actors succesfull. We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions, comparative or focusing on single case studies, quantitative and/or qualitative.

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