Simona Bevern addresses the questions what and why political parties communicate in the time between elections, focusing on the dynamic rise and fall of policy issues.Despite the central role of political parties and the alleged importance of communication, only few scholars have taken a closer look at the content and dynamics of parties’ communication in routine times of politics. In this study, interactions between parties’ communication, their party competitors, the legislative agenda, and public opinion are studied in Germany for the years 2004–2009, making use of a novel data set and quantitative methods.   Contents Dynamic patterns of inter-party competition Dynamics between parliamentary activities and overall party communication Dynamics between public opinion and overall party communication The Europeanization of party communication Methods of analysis: time series and multi-level regression models  Target Groups Lecturers and Students of Social Sciences, Political Sciences, Communication and Media Studies Political Parties, Organisations, Consultants in the area of Political Communications, Public and Media Relations  The Author After successful completion of the PhD program in political science at the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences of Mannheim University, Simona Bevern is now working in research management.  .