Spatial Models of Party Competition and Recent Trends in European Policy Spaces

Abstract

How do parties react to changing policy demands among the electorate, e.g., considering currently salient topics like immigration and environmental policies? Do they adapt their positions to the new mean voter, even when polarization increases, especially in light of new challengers from the populist right or left? And, how do voters react to parties’ movements in the policy space? This is only a short summary of possible questions that can be tackled by applying a spatial model of party competition. Spatial models in the Downsian tradition have long been the workhorse models in analyzing party competition and voting behavior, and are still the most valuable tools to model current developments in European party systems. The past has seen many developments of the spatial model, such as the adaption to multi-dimensional spaces or multi-party competition, but the flexibility of the model is far from being exhausted. The panel invites both theoretical advancements and empirical applications of the spatial model to recent trends in European policy spaces. The panel invites both theoretical advancements of the spatial model and empirical applications to recent trends in European policy spaces.

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