Why Only Nixon Could Go to China

Tyler Cowen and Daniel Sutter

Public Choice, 1998, vol. 97, issue 4, pages 605-15

Abstract: Right-wing politicians sometimes can implement policies that left-wing politicians cannot, and vice versa. Contemporary wisdom has it that 'only Nixon could have gone to China.' The authors develop a model to explain this phenomenon. A policy issue could depend on information, on which every one could potentially agree on policy, or on values, on which agreement is impossible. Politicians, who value both reelection and policy outcomes, realize the nature of the issue, whereas voters do not. Only a right-wing president can credibly signal the desirability of a left-wing course of action. The Nixon paradox can hold then if citizens vote retrospectively on the issue. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Date: 1998
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