Political Parties in Times of Energy Transition

Our paper presents a new measurement instrument to assess if and how parties compete over the main political tool to combat the environmental problem of climate change – energy policy. Building on the literature on niche parties and competition over the environment we develop a measure that is able to estimate both the issue salience of energy transition as well as party positions on it. Beyond adding a new policy category not captured by existing analytical frameworks like the ‘Comparative Manifesto Project’, our contribution to the literature on party competition will be threefold: First, by focusing on a ‘green’ issue we will enhance the understanding of the effects electoral success of the green niche party family has on its political competitors. Second, we will be able establish what determines the response of these competitors and finally, we will contribute to the emerging discussion over the possible transformation of the environment from a valence to a positional issue.