Issue Dimensionality and Party Competition

Abstract

The subject of issue dimensionality and party competition is a well-studied area in our field but we believe it is taking on new relevance in the changing conditions of contemporary party systems. Political issues – contestable concerns within the public sphere – are strategically framed and mobilized by political parties. Political parties use varied strategic calculations in joining disparate political preferences into ideological platforms, while simultaneously altering their public salience. From this perspective, politics is not so much a contest over positioning on issue dimensions as conceived by classical spatial theory, but rather a competition over the content, structure, and salience of these dimensions. New political circumstances and issues as well as new political parties, therefore, threaten to disrupt established salient dimensions to party competition and challenge mainstream parties to find ways to maintain their dominance.

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