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Analyzes the complex dimensions underlying the concept of party competition & argues that this complexity cannot be simplified into a rational-choice analyses of parties, party systems, & electoral behavior. The one-dimensionality & ambiguity of the concept of competition was taken uncritically from economic theory & applied to politics. Arguments by G. Simmel, J. A. Schumpeter, & A. Downs concerning competition are considered. However, many of assumptions regarding competition do not fit within politics, whose empirical reality is often complex, messy, & multidimensional. Economic & political markets have different characteristics. This approach is criticized based on detailed consideration of the basic nature of competition in the two different markets, giving attention to contestability, availability, decidability, & vulnerability. All four factors interact & create a more complex situation with tensions that simple models cannot capture. 1 Table, 1 Figure. L. A. Hoffman

In the first part of this work, published in the Journal of Theoretical Politics 11(4), I discussed the nature of competitive interaction as opposed to other types of social interaction such as conflict, negotiation and cooperation. I subsequently analysed the relationship which exists between political competition and the two basic aspects of democratic accountability and responsiveness. Finally I introduced four concepts (`contestability', `electoral availability', `offer's decidability' and `electoral vulnerability') which identify distinct and independent dimensions of the overall process of politico-electoral competition. Only the first two were discussed in the first part. In this second part the remaining two (`offer's decidability' and `electoral vulnerability') will be considered, before concluding with a discussion of the ambivalent relationships which link these dimensions and how they can be organized for an empirical study of politico-electoral competition.

This article deals with the concept and the problem of political competition and collusion with particular reference to democratic accountability and responsiveness. It starts with a discussion of the essence of competitive interaction with respect to other types of conflictual, negotiative or cooperative interactions. The relationship between competition and various conceptions of democracy is then discussed, identifying four independent dimensions: `contestability' (conditions of entry); `availability' (demand's elasticity); `decidability' (the political offer); and `vulnerability' (incumbents' safety of tenure). The paper concludes by discussing the relationships between competitive and collusive pushes in all aspects of political interactions, and criticizing the formal optimized models that fail to see the impossibility of parallel maximization of all dimensions of competition. Competition rests on a vast set of non-competitive preconditions and needs constraining-sustaining conditions, as it is unlikely to be effective in a world of rational, maximizing, selfish independent actors as much as it is in a world of communal closed groups.

Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020.

I termini «competizione politica», «elettorale» o «partitica» figurano nei titoli e nei testi di ricerca politica con crescente frequenza, ma con significati molto diversi. Per lo più, il termine è generico e si riferisce all'intero processo elettorale e parlamentare. Nei modelli formali esso indica le strategic dei partiti nei quadro ristretto di assunti sulle motivazioni, preferenze e informazioni. Nella letteratura sulla teoria democratica la competizione politica figura sovente come caratteristica essenziale, quando non definitoria, della democrazia stessa. In questo articolo voglio chiarire il senso dell'applicazione alla politica della categoria «competizione» partendo da cinque considerazioni critiche.