Somewhat relevant: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotelling%27s_law ; It’s an observation about why e.g. Whole Foods and Trader Joe would have branched next to each other, but also explains why in a two party system, parties end up having very similar platforms in practice with respect to most ”sliding scale” issues, like war. (And then there’s the polarizing no-middle all-or-nothing issues like abortion or immigration that are not addressed by this explanation)