Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP8941 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details   |   Bibliographic Reference

Full Details

Title: Choosing a Champion: Party Membership and Policy Platform

Author(s): Simon P Anderson and Kieron J Meagher

Publication Date: April 2012

Keyword(s): activism, endogenous activism, political parties, spatial voting and valence

Programme Area(s): Industrial Organization

Abstract: We introduce endogenous political parties into the Hotelling-Downs voting framework to model the selection of candidates. First, activists choose which party to join, if at all. Second, party members select a champion for the general election. Third, the electorate median voter determines the (stochastic) general election outcome. Although party members trade off win probabilities candidate location preferences, in equilibrium they vote sincerely, so champions are at party medians. Minimum differentiation is only attained when valence uncertainty vanishes. Otherwise, the electorate median voter is in neither party. Despite asymmetric party and policy positions in equilibrium, electoral successes remain roughly equal.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=8941

Bibliographic Reference

Anderson, S and Meagher, K. 2012. 'Choosing a Champion: Party Membership and Policy Platform'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=8941