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Electoral competition, political competition or electoral competitiveness describes the amount of
competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...
in
electoral politics An electoral or voting system is a set of rules used to determine the results of an election. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections may take place in business, nonprofit organizations and inf ...
between candidates or
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
, usually measured by the margin of victory. The
Polity data series The Polity data series is a data series in political science research. Along with the V-Dem Democracy Indices project and The Economist Democracy Index, Polity is among prominent datasets that measure democracy and autocracy. The Polity st ...
includes a measure of political competition. Political competitiveness can be affected by the proportionality between votes and seats, which can be represented by
Gallagher index The Gallagher index measures an electoral system's relative Proportional representation, disproportionality between votes received and seats in a legislature. As such, it measures the difference between the percentage of votes each party gets and ...
.


Roemer model of political competition


Effect on corruption

Political competitiveness can affect the level of
political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...
.


By country


United States

As of 1984, in American federal elections, races for
U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
tended to be more competitive than those for
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
. In the 21 st century, competition in elections has disappeared; even in
wave election In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. '' Periodic waves'' oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (resting) value at some fre ...
years, the vast majority of U.S. House members have been keeping their seats, with little pressure from the opposing party. Competition in U.S. House races has been in decline since at least the 1960s. In February 2025 the NY Times spoke of the death of competition in elections, which "were decided by low-turnout" of just 57,000 people voting for politicians in U.S. House
primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...
s rendering these "meaningless". Also, more than three-quarters of primary races in 2024 were uncontested and only 287 of more than 4,600 primaries were "meaningful". This has contributed to eroding trust in government. Apart from
gerrymandering in the United States Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. The term " ...
, there has been an aggregation of like-minded voters, because they have moved into the same neighborhoods and communities.


See also

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Effective number of parties In political science, the effective number of parties is a diversity index introduced by Laakso and Rein Taagepera (1979), which provides for an adjusted number of political parties in a country's party system, weighted by their relative size. The ...
*
Nomination rules Nomination rules in elections regulate the conditions under which a candidate or political party is entitled to stand for election. The right to stand for election, right to be a candidate or passive suffrage is one part of free and fair elections ...
*
Median voter theorem In political science and social choice theory, social choice, Black's median voter theorem says that if voters and candidates are distributed along a political spectrum, any voting method Condorcet criterion, compatible with majority-rule will elec ...
*
Marketplace of ideas The marketplace of ideas is a rationale for freedom of expression based on an analogy to the economic concept of a free market. The marketplace of ideas holds that the truth will emerge from the competition of ideas in free, transparent public di ...
*
Lesser of two evils principle The lesser of two evils principle, also referred to as the lesser evil principle and lesser-evilism, is the principle that when faced with selecting from two immoral options, the least immoral one should be chosen. The principle is most often in ...


References

{{reflist Elections