Introduction: Parties and voters in a multi-level electoral setting

In this article the main contents of this special issue are introduced. In particular, some of the main problems related to multi-level electoral competition in Italy are presented and how this work intends to analyse them. It will be shown that both parties and voters have strategically adapted and responded to the challenges of multi-level electoral competition to an extent that was probably unexpected in a system undergoing transformation and whose inefficiencies are a conventional wisdom.