Opposition Parties: Mapping your competitors and staying ahead of the curve

Mapping the political competition is a kind of campaign cliche. Every party manager and politician wants to stay ahead of their political opponents during and outside of campaigns. But the way party managers and politicians try to identify their competitors can easily go astray. In a multi-party political system, parties in opposition tend to make two common mistakes when planning their strategy.

Don’t only focus on the governing party

One mistake is when party strategists ‘self-evidently’ focus on the governing party as their one and only competitor in a general election. That might not always be the best move, especially if there are several viable parties running in the election and the governing party’s voters are farther from you on an ideological scale compared to other opposition parties. If you only focus on the governing party — perhaps simply as a result of your emotions rather than a clear-headed strategy—you sacrifice focusing on the voters closest to you: voters of other opposition parties who are more aligned with your party on the ideological map.