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Keep Your Enemies Closer: Strategic Platform Adjustments during US and French Elections

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  • Rafael Di Tella
  • Randy Kotti
  • Caroline Le Pennec
  • Vincent Pons

Abstract

We study changes in political discourse during campaigns, using a novel dataset of candidate websites for US House elections, 2002–2016, and manifestos for French parliamentary and local elections, 1958–2022. We find that candidates move to the center in ideology and rhetorical complexity between the first round (or primary) and the second round (or general election). This convergence reflects candidates' strategic adjustment to their opponents, as predicted by Downsian competition: Using an RDD we show that candidates converge to the platform of opponents who narrowly qualified for the last round as opposed to those who narrowly failed to qualify.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafael Di Tella & Randy Kotti & Caroline Le Pennec & Vincent Pons, 2025. "Keep Your Enemies Closer: Strategic Platform Adjustments during US and French Elections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(8), pages 2488-2528, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:8:p:2488-2528
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231045
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    Cited by:

    1. Schönenberger, Felix, 2023. "Strategic Policy Responsiveness to Opponent Platforms: Evidence From U.S. House Incumbents Running Against Moderate or Extremist Challengers," MPRA Paper 120160, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Felix Kersting, 2023. "Mimicking the Opposition: Bismarck's Welfare State and the Rise of the Socialists," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 448, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    3. Francesco Bilotta & Alberto Binetti & Giacomo Manferdini, 2025. "Blameocracy: Causal Attribution in Political Communication," Papers 2504.06550, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2025.
    4. Schönenberger, Felix, 2024. "Out of Office, Out of Step? Re-election Concners and Ideological Shirking in Lame Duck Sessions of the U.S. House of Representatives," MPRA Paper 120159, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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