Most research on political congruence has failed to address a fundamental aspect: the explanation of its causality. Party characteristics are acknowledged to be relevant, but there is no consensus as to their effective importance. Nor has there thus far been an analysis of the implications for results of using different methods to assess congruence. The present article seeks to respond to these goals by testing the importance of party type (catch-all versus ideological) to an explanation of levels of intra-party congruence, comparing the main methods of assessing congruence Findings support the notion that Portuguese catch-all parties tend to display slightly higher levels of MP-voter congruence than more ideological parties, although that is essentially dependent on the issue in question. These results were supported by the different methods used.

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party type, congruence