Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Economic competition and political competition

  • Published:
Public Choice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  1. See the survey by G. J. Stigler, “Perfect Competition, Historically Contemplated,” inEssays in the History of Economics (Chicago, 1965).

  2. See Charles M. Tiebout, “A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures,”Journal of Political Economy, October 1956.

  3. This first condition is generally invoked. See A. Ranney and W. Kendall, “The American Party System”,American Political Science Review, June 1954, for references to the later literature, see D. G. Pfeiffer, “The Measurement of Inter-Party Competition and Systematic Stability”,American Political Science Review, June 1957, and R. I. Hofferbert, “Classification of American Party Systems”,Journal of Politics, August 1964.

  4. See J. Schlesinger, “A Two-Dimensional Scheme of American Party Systems”,American Political Science Review, 1955.

  5. See H. Hotelling, “Stability in Competition,” reprinted inReadings in Price Theory (edited by G. Stigler and K. Boulding); also A. Smithies, “Optimum Location in Spatial Competition,”Journal of Political Economy, June 1941.

  6. See George Stigler,The Theory of Price (New York, 1966), Ch. 12. A more interesting economic model would allow each firm to open several stores, but in deference to the analogy to the political process we pursue, this option is not explored.

  7. James Q Wilson, “The Economy of Patronage,”Journal of Political Economy, 1961, in fact implicitly postulates non-competitive conditions in much of his discussion.

  8. See George Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation”,The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, Spring 1971.

  9. An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York, 1957) pp. 31, 35.

  10. This distinction is elaborated by M. J. Hinich and P. C. Ordeshook, “Plurality Maximization v. Vote Maximization: A Spatial Analysis with Variable Participation”,American Political Science Review, September 1970.

  11. The Theory of Political Coalitions (New Haven, 1962).

  12. See, e.g., A. Downs,An Economic Theory of Democracy, pp. 36–50, 260–76; and W. H. Riker and P. C. Ordeshook, “A Theory of the Calculus of Voting”,American Political Science Review, March 1968.

  13. Four of the five satisfactions offered by Riker and Ordeshook are of this sort; the fifth is that going to the polling station may be pleasurable;ibid., p. 28.

  14. More precisely, if the variety of automobiles was fixed forever, a given amount of search would be undertaken by the buyer. If desired changes in future products can be encouraged, larger amount of search is justified. See myThe Organization of Industry, p. 178.

Download references

Authors
  1. George J. Stigler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Charles R. Walgreen Foundation for the Study of American Institutions, The University of Chicago.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stigler, G.J. Economic competition and political competition. Public Choice 13, 91–106 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01718854

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01718854

Keywords

Search

Navigation