Collusion, Competition and Democracy

Abstract

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.