An empirical test of presidentialism's effect on party competition

• Party competition in legislative elections is partly a function of presidential elections.
• Previous research assumes parties are competing in parliamentary elections.
• Presidential elections lead to relatively centrist candidates.
• Coattails from presidential elections shape parties in legislative elections.
• Legislative parties in presidentialism are more centrist than parliamentary parties.

This article argues that party competition in legislative elections is partly a function of presidential elections. Previous research on spatial competition has assumed that parties are competing in parliamentary regimes, where the only election of concern for parties and voters is the legislative election. However, in presidential regimes, presidential elections lead to relatively centrist positioning of candidates, and coattail effects from the presidential elections help shape the legislative elections. Using data from the Comparative Manifestos Project, I show that the major parties of the left and right in legislative elections are ideologically closer to each other in presidential regimes than major parties in parliamentary regimes.