Abstract
This study makes use of the concept of ideology to answerimportant questions of political competition. I develop amulticandidate model in which voters use ideology as asimplifying device that helps them to choose a candidate in anoisy environment. Three important results arise for thehomogeneous-polity case. First, the candidate with moreresources is the one more likely to win the election. Second,a merger between two parties might yield to a higher expectedplurality for the candidate of the newly formed party. Third,political convulsion yields to a decrease in the expectedplurality for the incumbent candidate.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alt, J. and Shepsle, K. (Eds.). (1990). Perspective on positive political economy. NewYork: John Wiley and Sons.
Arrow, K. (1963). Social choice and individual values. Second edition. New Heaven: Yale University Press.
Austen-Smith, D. (1994). Strategic transmission of costly information. Econometrica 62: 955–964.
Austen-Smith, D. and Banks, J. (1998). Positive political theory I: Collective preferences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Black, D. (1958). The theory of committees and elections. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Bonilla, C. (2002). Political competition and ideology in formal political economy. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Austin: The University of Texas.
Buchanan, J. (1965). An economic theory of clubs. Economica 32: 1–14.
Buchanan, J. and Tullock, G. (1962). The calculus of consent. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Cameron, C. and Enelow, J. (1992). Perceptual asymmetries, campaign contributions, and the spatial theory of elections. Mathematical and Computer Modelling 15: 71–89.
Cameron, C. and Morton, R. (1992). Elections and the theory of campaign contributions: A survey and critical analysis. Economics and Politics 4: 79–108.
Crain, M. and Tollosin, R. (1976). Campaign expenditures and political competition. Journal of Law and Economics 19: 177–188.
DeGroot, M. (1986). Probability and statistics. Second edition. Adison Wesley.
Denzau, A. and Parks, R. (1975). The continuity of majority rule equilibria. Econometrica 43: 853–866.
Dow, J. (1998). A spatial analysis of candidates competition in dual member districts: The 1989 chilean senatorial election. Public Choice 97: 451–474.
Downs, A. (1957). An economic theory of democracy. New York: Harper and Row.
Ekelund, R. and Tollison, R. (2001). The interest group theory of government. In W. Shughart and L. Razzolini (Eds.), The Elgar Companion to public choice, 357–378. London, U.K.: Edward Elgar.
Enelow, J. and Hinich, M. (1984). The spatial theory of voting: An introduction. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.
Enelow, J. and Hinich, M. (1990). Advances in the spatial theory of voting. NewYork: Cambridge University Press.
Enelow, J. and Hinich, M. (1994). A test of the predictive dimension model in spatial voting theory. Public Choice 78: 155–170.
Enelow, J. and Munger, M. (1993). The elements of candidate reputation: The effects of records and credibility on optimal spatial location. Public Choice 77: 757–772.
Gonzalez, J. (2000). The political instinct: The role of deception in the chilean transition to democracy. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Austin: The University of Texas.
Hinich, M., Khmelko, V. and Ordeshook, P. (1999). A spatial analysis of Ukraine’s 1998 parliamentary election. Post-Soviet Affairs 15: 149–185.
Hinich, M. and Munger, M. (1994). Ideology and the theory of political choice. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Hinich, M. and Munger, M. (1997). Analytical politics. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
McCormick, R and Tollison, R. (1981). Politicians, legislation and the economy: An inquiry into the interest-group theory of government. Boston, MA: Martinus Nijhoff.
Mckelvey, R. (1979). General conditions for global intransitivities in formal voting models. Econometrica 47: 1085–1111.
Palfrey, T. and Poole, K. (1987). The relation between information, ideology, and voting behavior. American Journal of Political Science 31: 511–530.
Shepsle, K. and Weingast, B. (1981). Structure-induced equilibrium and legislative choice. Public Choice 37: 503–519.
Tullock, G. (1967). Toward a mathematics of politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Tullock, G. (1981). Why so much stability? Public Choice 37: 189–202.
Varian, H. (1992). Microeconomic theory. New York: Norton Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bonilla, C.A. A Model of Political Competition in the Underlying Space of Ideology. Public Choice 121, 51–67 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-004-6157-y
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-004-6157-y