Modelling Politics

Norman Schofield ()

ICER Working Papers from ICER - International Centre for Economic Research

Abstract: Formal models of elections have emphasized the convergence of party leaders towards the center of the electoral distribution. This paper discusses various political episodes in British and US history to suggest that political divergence is generic. This leads to the inference that political choice involves electoral judgment as well as preference. The stochastic electoral model is extended to incorporate the basis of judgment, namely valence. The model suggests that when the electoral system is based on proportional electoral methods, then there will be numerous parties with very di¤erent valences, adopting very divergent positions. Under plurality rule, on the other hand, the role of activists appears to restrict the number of parties to two, and to cause a slow political rotation in the policy space.

Date: 2007-03
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:icr:wpicer:33-2007

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