Guns, Environment, and Abortion: How Single-Minded Voters Shape Politicians’ Decisions*

Laurent Bouton, Paola Conconi, Francisco Pino and Maurizio Zanardi

No 2018-07, Working Papers ECARES from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: We study how electoral incentives a.ect policy choices on secondary issues, which only minorities of voters care intensely about. We develop a model in which o.ce and policy motivated politicians choose to support or oppose regulations on these issues. We derive conditions under which politicians .ip-.op, voting according to their policy preferences at the beginning of their terms, but in line with the preferences of single-issue minorities as they approach re-election. To assess the evidence, we study U.S. senators’ votes on gun control, environment, and reproductive rights. In line with our model’s predictions, election proximity has a pro-gun e.ect on Democratic senators and a pro-environment e.ect on Republican senators. These e.ects only arise for non-retiring senators, who represent states where the single-issue minority is of intermediate size. Also in line with our theory, election proximity has no impact on senators’ decisions on reproductive rights, because of the presence of single-issue minorities on both sides.

Keywords: Electoral Incentives; Environnent; Gun Control; Reproductive Rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 p.
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published by:

Downloads: (external link)
https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/2687 ... INO_ZANARDI-guns.pdf Œuvre complète ou partie de l'œuvre (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Guns, environment and abortion: how single-minded voters shape politicians decisions (2018)
Working Paper: Guns, Environment, and Abortion: How Single-Minded Voters Shape Politicians' Decisions (2018)
Working Paper: Guns, environment and abortion: how single-minded voters shape politicians decisions (2018)
Working Paper: Guns, Environment, and Abortion: How Single-Minded Voters Shape Politicians' Decisions (2018)
Working Paper: Guns, Environment, and Abortion: How Single-Minded Voters Shape Politicians' Decisions (2018)
Working Paper: Guns, Environment, and Abortion: How Single-Minded Voters Shape Politicians' Decisions (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eca:wpaper:2013/268793

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://hdl.handle.ne ... lb.ac.be:2013/268793

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers ECARES from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benoit Pauwels ().