ABSTRACT
Parties that are close to one another on the political spectrum can interact in elections in various ways, ranging between two polar options: (1) fi erce electoral battles over the same potential pool of votes, rejecting collaboration before and after elections; and (2) full party unifi cation, merging the two parties into a single one. Between these two poles, we can identify various possibilities, such as agreements to refrain from mutual attacks and surplus vote agreements that refl ect their ideological affi nity, or battles at different levels of intensity.
