Ethnoregional parties (ERPs) advocate for decision making at a more particular level on behalf of less represented segments of societies, thus providing the democratic systems with a more straightforward legitimacy. Despite the extensive literature on ERPs, how their alignment with these segments materializes in their behavior is yet to be studied. In this article, I argue that there are significant differences between ERPs of Western Europe (WE) and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). While ERPs in WE most often align with voters through socio-economic issues, ERPs in CEE align with voters through cultural issues which pertain to religion and ethnicity. This is a result of (1) cleavage formation patterns and (2) level decentralization. To test this theory, the study presents a comparison of ethnoregional party behavior in 8 Western European (WE) and 14 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries between the years 1990 and 2025 using the Manifesto Project. The differences of issue saliences are estimated using several t-tests, both within group and across groups, whereas the impact of sample group on distinctiveness is predicted by multiple regression models with conventional controls. The findings show that ERPs demonstrate a significantly distinct profile in CEE compared to WE.
