Parties’ issue responsiveness between elections

Are parties responsive to short-term changes in election polls? While party responsiveness to election outcomes has been widely studied, less is known about how parties adjust issue attention between elections. This study addresses this question using the comprehensive PARTYPRESS database. Supervised machine learning methods are employed to construct a dynamic measure of parties’ issue attention based on over 250,000 press releases from 68 parties across nine countries between 2010 and 2020. The results provide little evidence that declining poll support prompts parties to shift their issue priorities. Parties do not consistently emphasise their owned issues, pay greater attention to popular issues, or adjust their issue focus to align with successful competitors. These findings have important implications for understanding party responsiveness and the dynamics of electoral competition.