What are the historical origins of inter-party competition? Previous work on European political development stresses the importance of a fully enfranchised and mobilized male electorate. Yet, the variable processes by which voters were enfranchised during the pre-democratic era is grossly understudied. Using newly digitized historical data from a cross-section of twenty-four European states, this paper proposes a conceptual typology of the paths to universal male suffrage. The pathway to universal male enfranchisement varies along two dimensions; the timing of inclusion dimension -- or when in the sequence of political development universal male enfranchisement took place, and along the cause dimension -- or what alliance or struggle for power led to enfranchisment. Specifically, universal male suffrage was a result of socialist agitation, a regional compromise, or offensive nationalism. I show that each of the pathways to a fully mobilized male electorate led to a different form of pre-democratic party competition for newly emerging states in the European pre-war period. Pathways to enfranchisement range from states that liberalized access to the vote early on the basis of national identity, to states that were late to liberalize access to the vote and did so as a result of a broad cross-class alliance. I argue and show that who initially played the political game is as important for understanding the development of party competition as understanding how the political game is played.