Call for Papers – ‘ Panel 3.6 Until you changed yourself, you could not change the others: Exploring Challenger parties’ institutionalization ’ *Sorry for cross-posting* Dear Colleagues, we are delighted to announce a call for papers for a panel on Challenger parties' institutionalization ( https://www.sisp.it/convegno2021/?pagename=cms&name=sessiontracks&trackname=comparative-politics), which will take place at the next Annual Conference of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP). The Conference will be held as a Virtual Event, on September 9th-11th, 2021. You may find a short verion of the panel abstract at the bottom of this message. We are glad also to announce that Marc van de Wardt will be the discussant! The deadline for paper submissions is Monday MAY, 17th. For any further information or query, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the panel chairs (l.puleo@santannapisa.it; dvittori@luiss.it). Looking forward to receiving your proposal. Best wishes, Leonardo Puleo & Davide Vittori Panel abstract "In the last decades, European party systems have been shaken by the emergence of new challenger parties. [...] Challengers who survive the electoral breakthrough undergone a crucial institutionalization conundrum: emphasizing their ideological and organizational differences or progressively blurring their distinctiveness. Contemporary research largely focused on those factors enabling challenger parties’ electoral success and explored the characteristics of their voters. However, limited attention has been devoted to the process of institutionalization of challenger parties and specifically to the potential transformation of their alleged distinctiveness. The panel proposes to consider as challengers those parties challenging their national party systems: i) introducing neglected issues, ii) stretching the dimensions of the political space or iii) contesting the values and rules regulating the political competition (including the political establishment). The main purpose of the panel is to investigate whether some crucial events (e.g. access to parliament, electoral breakthrough or participation in coalition governments) have impacted on their institutionalization process. To this purpose, the panel welcomes theoretical and empirical contributions – based on single case studies, focused comparison and large N studies – that deal with different dimensions of challenger parties’ institutionalization. [...] Namely, we welcome papers that deal with:: • The ‘internal’ routinization of the behavioural and organizational practices, • The ‘internal’ shifts on the challenger parties’ ideology and issue supply, • The ‘external’ perceptions of the challenger parties by their established competitors, • The ‘objective’ survival record of challenger parties and their degree of integration within their national party system."