Political Parties and Public Policies: Are there still Differences – Against all Odds?

Abstract

One of the core functions of political parties is participation in political decision-making. Normatively, parties are often expected to offer differing policy options in order to give voters a real choice in terms of government policy. Nonetheless, party scholars (e.g. Kirchheimer 1966 and Katz and Mair 1995 as classics) as well as scholars with a political-economy background (e.g. Strange 1995, Huber and Stephens 2001) have doubted that parties are still willing and able to make a difference. On the one hand, electoral competition in highly volatile voter markets increasingly incites parties to adapt their policy proposals to the preferences of the same electorate. On the other hand, parties face external constraints like globalization, Europeanization and an era of permanent austerity that make it very difficult for them to adopt policies that systematically and meaningfully differ from the policies of their competitors. The papers in this panel present new evidence on the question of partisan differences. Theoretically, it is discussed whether partisan effects differ between different issue areas or policy types or are conditioned by external constraints. Empirically, each paper compares different policy fields rather than analyze one single indicator. Moreover, the empirical analyses rely on new data and innovative methodological approaches (e.g. using governments rather than country years as unit of observation). Huber, Evelyne/Stephens, John D., 2001: Development and Crisis of the Welfare State. Parties and Policies in Global Markets, Chicago/London. Katz, Richard S./Mair, Peter, 1995: Changing Models of Party Organization and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party, Party Politics 1, 5-28. Kirchheimer, Otto, 1966: Germany: The vanishing opposition. In: Dahl, Robert (ed.): Political Opposition in Western Europe, pp. 312–313. New Haven. Strange, Susan, 1995: The Limits of Politics, Government and Opposition 30, 291-311.