Trade-Offs of Social Democratic Party Strategies in a Pluralized Issue Space: A Conjoint Analysis

abstract: This article provides a novel framework and empirical test of the strategic trade-offs of political parties’ programmatic appeals. In a pluralized issue space, political positions have the potential to create severe strategic trade-offs for political parties, with gains among one group of voters offset by losses among another. Existing research assumes that these trade-offs are especially prominent for social democratic parties but does not directly test whether specific subelectorates respond differently to particular programmatic appeals. To identify trade-offs for social democratic parties, the authors ran conjoint experiments in six Western European countries. Respondents could choose between programs that varied on several issue dimensions. The authors find that trade-offs among potential social democratic voters are less pronounced than the literature expects, especially regarding economic policies. The findings also establish two underrated challenges for social democratic parties: the existence of stronger trade-offs between age groups and the potential longer-term consequences of salience trade-offs.