Argumentation strategies in party competition

Abstract Political parties' rhetorical strategies play a crucial role in shaping public opinion and electoral outcomes. To gain insight into what kind of arguments parties present to the public, and under what conditions, we develop a model of argumentation where parties compete to persuade voters before engaging in platform competition. Our model allows us to explore when parties present arguments that highlight the strengths of their ideological positions, as opposed to those that expose the weaknesses of their opponents'; when parties try to persuade voters on the same or on different dimensions; and when parties tacitly collude on an dimension, neither truly attempting to change voters' preferences.