What factors explain the broadcasting of televised election debates? Empirical evidence from Germany

Abstract

Televised election debates are considered as the most important single campaign event. While a large body of research has analyzed their content, processing, impact, and media coverage, it has not yet been examined under which conditions candidates agree to debate. This is remarkable, as debates are a matter of course in only a few countries, and candidates are always renegotiating their participation with the television networks. Using a dataset covering all German federal and state elections between 1994 and 2022 ( N = 108), we demonstrate that the broadcasting of televised debates is more likely if (1) there was a debate in the last election, (2) the fragmentation of the party system is low, and (3) the race is close. Furthermore, the likelihood for debates increases over time; also, the introduction of debates on the national level has stimulated the broadcast of debates in state elections.