Adapt or Perish? Programmatic-, governmental- and organizational transitions of dominant and challenger parties in 10 established democracies between 1986-2020

Political parties have responded to a changing and challenging environment by implementing party reforms. Based on a review of De Vries & Hobolts’ “Political Entrepreneurs. The rise of Challenger Parties in Europe” (2020), this paper argues that party transitions should be studied as transitions of the multi-componential political product (i.e. focusing less on the party’s core issue and adopting a non-probable governing position) and transitions of the decision-making processes of the party. In this paper, these types of transitions implemented by 48 dominant and challenger parties in 10 established democracies are studied over a period of thirty years. The results show that dominant parties do adapt more frequently and intensively their political product and decision-making processes, but that this difference between dominant and challenger parties decreases over time.