Constraints on Party Policy Change

Political scientists are quite good at predicting 'optimal' policy
positions that - under the given circumstances - allow parties to
get maximal payoffs in terms of policy, offi ce or votes. What we do
not know is whether parties are actually able to take these positions
or whether they are constrained to do so. This book attempts to
narrow this gap. The major argument is that parties do not choose
policy positions from scratch and that they cannot freely change
their policy platforms. Rather, voters' lacking perception of
changing party platforms and intra-party factors constrain parties
when shifting their policy positions. An empirical analysis of party
policy shifts in ten Western European democracies shows that
these constraints differ across parties and thus affect the parties'
position-taking differently. Considering this variation is important
to derive more precise predictions for parties' policy platforms and
for our understanding of party behaviour in general.

"This very good and very important book analyses why (and
when) political parties shift their policy positions. Meyer presents
innovative empirical analyses and theoretical arguments showing
that party policy change is constrained by factors including
parties' organisational structures, their governing status, their
resources, their previous policy behaviour, the prestige of the
party's leader, and voters' levels of political interest. By shifting
his focus away from parties' static policy positions and onto
parties' policy shifts, Meyer advances our understanding of
parties' election strategies and the dynamics of mass-elite policy
linkages. This powerful book will help to shape the study of
parties and elections for years to come."
Professor James Adams, Department of Political Science
University of California

"This book adds usefully to our knowledge of party behaviour in
democracies, to the development of democrative theory and to
the assessment of the comparative evidence relating to it. In these
ways, it adds signifi cantly to the ECPR book series as a whole and
to comparative political science in general."
Ian Budge, Professor Emeritus of Government
University of Essex