How electoral relevance drives party responsiveness across policy issues

Parties maintain democratic representation by dynamically aligning with voter preferences. However, they face a dilemma. Parties are incentivized to take popular positions but often punished for shifting too strongly or frequently, posing the question of under which conditions parties respond to voter preferences. Previous research has mostly focused on the broader left-right dimension and failed to account for issue-level dynamics in party responsiveness. I argue that the electoral relevance of political issues crucially shapes party responsiveness. When parties consider an issue important for their electoral fortunes, they should be more likely to align with relevant voter groups. I examine both demand- and supply-side signals of electoral relevance. On the demand side, I examine the role of public issue salience. On the supply side, I examine the roles of issue owner electoral success and party system salience. Merging data from party expert surveys and election studies, I study how parties dynamically align their positions with voter preferences on up to six key issues in 28 European countries between 1999 and 2024. I find that parties are more responsive, especially to their supporters, on issues with high public salience and in the presence of an electorally successful issue owner. Party system salience does not seem to shape responsiveness. The paper has important implications for our understanding of responsiveness and democratic representation in contemporary European party competition.