|
|
File:
|
|
[pdf]
|
Title:
|
|
Political Parties and Electoral Landscapes
|
Authors:
|
|
Ken Kollman, John H. Miller, and Scott E. Page
|
Key Words:
|
|
Spatial Voting, Adaptive Political Parties, Electoral Landscapes, Voter Preferences
|
Abstract:
|
|
We study the relationship between voters’ preferences and the emergence of party
platforms in two-party democratic elections with adaptive parties. In the model,
preferences of voters and the opposition party’s platform determine an electoral
landscape on which the challenging party must adaptively search for votes. We show
that changes in the underlying distribution of voter’s preferences result in different
electoral landscapes which can be characterized by a measure of ruggedness. We find that
locally adapting parties converge to moderate platforms regardless of the landscape’s
ruggedness. Greater ruggedness, however, tempers a party’s ability to find such
platforms. Thus, we are able to establish a link between the distribution of voters’
preferences and the responsiveness of adaptive parties.
|
|