Abstract
This chapter revolves around parties imitating each other. In particular, it is about established parties imitating a challenger party in terms of its core policy issue position. It begins from summarising theory and previous work about such “parroting.” It continues with proof of imitation in 15 contemporary West European countries and zooms in on several empirical examples. This chapter then discusses possible causes of imitation, and ends with suggested effects on the electoral support for the imitated parties, introducing the “parrot hypothesis.”
References
Abou-Chadi, Tarik. 2016. Niche Party Success and Mainstream Party Policy Shifts—How Green and Radical Right Parties Differ in Their Impact. British Journal of Political Science 46 (2): 417–436.
Adams, James, Samuel Merrill III, and Bernard Grofman. 2005. A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Adams, James, Michael Clark, Lawrence Ezrow, and Garrett Glasgow. 2006. Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties’ Policy Shifts, 1976–1998. American Journal of Political Science 50 (3): 513–529.
Adams, James, Lawrence Ezrow, and Debra Leiter. 2012. Partisan Sorting and Niche Parties in Europe. West European Politics 35 (6): 1272–1294.
Art, David. 2006. The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Brady, Henry E. 2011. The Art of Political Science: Spatial Diagrams as Iconic and Revelatory. Perspectives on Politics 9 (2): 311–331.
Carter, Elisabeth. 2005. The extreme right in Western Europe: success or failure? Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.
Downs, William M. 2001. Pariahs in their Midst: Belgian and Norwegian Parties React to Extremist Threats. West European Politics 24 (3): 23–42.
Downs, William M. 2002. How Effective is the Cordon Sanitaire? Lessons from Efforts to Contain the Far Right in Belgium, France, Denmark and Norway. Journal für Konflikt- und Gewaltforschung 4 (1): 32–51.
Downs, William M. 2012. Political Extremism in Democracies: Combating Intolerance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Enelow, James M., and Melvin J. Hinich. 1984. The Spatial Theory of Voting: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ezrow, Lawrence. 2008. On the Inverse Relationship Between Votes and Proximity for Niche Parties. European Journal of Political Research 47: 206–220.
Fischer, Anton. 1988. Democratic Centralism in a Federalist Environment: The Swiss Party of Labour. In Communist Parties in Western Europe: Decline or Adaptation? ed. M. Waller, and M. Fennema. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Gilberg, Trond. 1979. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland: The Struggle between Nationalism and Internationalism. In Communism and Political Systems in Western Europe, ed. D.E. Albright. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Harmel, Robert, and Lars Svasand. 1997. The Influence of New Parties on Old Parties’ Platforms: The cases of the Progress Parties and Conservative Parties of Denmark and Norway. Party Politics 3 (3): 315–340.
Hester, Robert J. 2009. Co-opting the Immigration Issue within the French Right. French Politics 7: 19–30.
Hodgson, John H. 1979. Finland: The SKP and Electoral Politics. In Communism and Political Systems in Western Europe D, ed. E. Albright. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Hotelling, Harold. 1929. Stability in Competition. Economic Journal 39 (153): 41–57.
Hyvärinen, Matti, and Jukka Paastela. 1988. Failed Attempts at Modernization: The Finnish Communist Party. In Communist Parties in Western Europe: Decline or Adaptation? ed. M. Waller, and M. Fennema. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Inglehart, Ronald, and Hans-Dieter Klingemann. 1976. “Party Identification, Ideological Preference and the Left-Right Dimension among Western Mass Publics.” In Party Identification and Beyond: Representations of Voting and Party Competition, ed. I. Budge, I. Crewe and D. Farlie. London: Wiley.
Kamber, Dominik. 2008. Communist and Post-Communist Parties in Switzerland after 1989/1990—A Survey. In Communist and Post-communist Parties in Europe, ed. U. Backes, and P. Moreau. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht: Göttingen.
Kedar, Orit. 2009. Voting for Policy, Not Parties: How Voters Compensate for Power Sharing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kriesi, Hanspeter, Edgar Grande, Romain Lachat, Martin Dolezal, Simon Bornschier, and Timotheos Frey. 2008. West European Politics in the Age of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lubbers, Marcel. 2001. Exclusionistic Electorates: Extreme Right-Wing Voting in Western Europe. Nijmegen: ICS Dissertations.
Macdonald, Stuart E., Ola Listhaug, and George Rabinowitz. 1991. Issues and Party Support in Multiparty Systems. American Political Science Review 85: 1107–1131.
Macdonald, Stuart E., George Rabinowitz and Ola Listhaug. 2001. Sophistry Versus Science: On Further Efforts to Rehabilitate the Proximity Model. The Journal of Politics 63: 482–500.
McInnes, Neil. 1975. The Communist Parties of Western Europe. London: Oxford University Press.
Meguid, Bonnie M. 2005. Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success. American Political Science Review 99 (3): 435–452.
Meguid, Bonnie M. 2008. Party Competition between Unequals: Strategies and Electoral Fortunes in Western Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Meyer, Thomas M., and Markus Wagner. 2013. Mainstream of Niche? Vote-Seeking Incentives and the Programmatic Strategies of Political Parties. Comparative Political Studies 46 (10): 1246–1272.
Minkenberg, Michael. 2001. The Radical Right in Public Office: Agenda-Setting and Policy Effects. West European Politics 24 (4): 1–21.
Minkenberg, Michael. 2002. The New Radical Right in the Political Process: Interaction Effects in France and Germany. In Shadows over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe, ed. M. Schain, A. Zolberg, and P. Hossay. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Norris, Pippa. 2005. The Radical Right: Voters and Parties in The Electoral Market. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Perlmutter, Ted. 2002. The Politics of Restriction: The Effect of Xenophobic Parties on Italian Immigration Policy and German Asylum Policy. In Shadows over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe, ed. M. Schain, A. Zolberg, and P. Hossay. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pettigrew, Thomas F. 1998. Reactions Toward the New Minorities of Western Europe. Annual Review of Sociology 24: 77–103.
Rabinowitz, George, and Stuart E. Macdonald. 1989. A Directional Theory of Issue Voting. American Political Science Review 83 (1): 93–121.
Schain, Martin A. 1987. The National Front in France and the Construction of Political Legitimacy. West European Politics 10 (2): 229–252.
Schain, Martin A. 2002. The Impact of the French National Front on the French Political System. In Shadows over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe, ed. M. Schain, A. Zolberg, and P. Hossay. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schain, Martin A. 2006. The Extreme-Right and Immigration Policy-Making: Measuring Direct and Indirect Effects. West European Politics 29 (2): 270–289.
Simon, Herbert A. 1985. The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science. American Political Science Review 79: 293–304.
Strøm, Kaare, and Wolfgang Muller. 1999. Political Parties and Hard Choices. In Policy, Office, or Votes? ed. W.C. Muller, and K. Strøm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tannahill, R. Neal. 1978. The Communist Parties of Western Europe. A Comparative Study. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Van der Brug, Wouter, Meindert Fennema, and Jean Tillie. 2000. Anti-immigrant Parties in Europe: Ideological or protest Vote? European Journal of Political Research 37 (1): 77–102.
Van der Brug, Wouter, Meindert Fennema, and Jean Tillie. 2005. Why Some Anti-Immigrant Parties Fail and Others Succeed. A Two-Step Model of Aggregate Electoral Support. Comparative Political Studies 38 (5): 537–573.
Van der Brug, Wouter, and Joost H.P. van Spanje. 2009. Immigration, Europe, and the ‘New’ Cultural Dimension. European Journal of Political Research 48 (3): 309–334.
Van der Eijk, Cees, and Mark N. Franklin. 1996. Choosing Europe?: The European Electorate and National Politics in the Face of Union. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
Van Heerden, Sjoerdje, and Bram Creusen. 2014. Responding to the Populist Radical Right: The Dutch Case. In European Populism and Winning the Immigration Debate, ed. C. Sandelind. Brussels: European Liberal Forum & Fores.
Van Spanje, Joost H.P. 2010. Contagious Parties. Anti-immigration Parties and Their Impact on Other Parties’ Immigration Stances in Contemporary Western Europe. Party Politics 16 (5): 563–586.
Van Spanje, Joost H. P. 2011. The Wrong and the Right. A Comparative Analysis of ‘Anti-Immigration’ and ‘Far Right’ Parties in Contemporary Western Europe. Government and Opposition 46 (3): 293–320.
Volkens, Andrea, Pola Lehmann, Nicolas Merz, Sven Regel, and Annika Werner. 2014. The Manifesto Data Collection, Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Berlin: WZB.
Waller, Michael, and Meindert Fennema, eds. 1988. Communist Parties in Western Europe: Decline or Adaptation? Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Westholm, Anders. 1997. Distance Versus Direction: The Illusory Defeat of the Proximity Theory of Electoral Choice. American Political Science Review 91: 865–883.
Widfeldt, Anders. 2004. The Diversified Approach: Swedish Responses to the Extreme Right. In Western Democracies and the Right Extremist Challenge, ed. R. Eatwell, and C. Mudde. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Spanje, J. (2018). Parrot Parties: Established Parties’ Co-optation of Other Parties’ Policy Proposals. In: Controlling the Electoral Marketplace. Political Campaigning and Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58202-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58202-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58201-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58202-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)