How do strategic politicians make tradeoffs and prioritize among multiple objectives, such as winning and staying in office, career advancement, “good policy”, personal gain, and historical legacy? And what impact does this have on public policy? This talk develops a general framework for understanding how politicians prioritize objectives and make strategic choices in particular contexts, focusing on the role of political vehicles (notably political parties) and broader political opportunity structures within which politicians operate. How different institutional contexts shape politicians’ objectives and policy outputs are explored in a comparison of policymaking in the U.S. federal government, the European Union and the Chinese party-state