òòò½Íø Journal:
Microeconomics
ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)
Political Competition with Endogenous Party Formation and Citizen Activists
òòò½Íø Journal: Microeconomics
vol. 14,
no. 3, August 2022
(pp. 35–75)
Abstract
This paper studies the effects of endogenous party formation on political platforms. It develops a model in which parties allow like-minded citizens to, first, share the cost of running in a public election and, second, coordinate on a policy platform. The paper characterizes the set of political equilibria with two competing parties and with one uncontested party. In two-party equilibria, the distance between both platforms is always positive but limited, in contrast to the median voter model and the citizen candidate model. In one-party equilibria, the median voter can be worse off than in all equilibria with two competing parties.Citation
Hansen, Emanuel. 2022. "Political Competition with Endogenous Party Formation and Citizen Activists." òòò½Íø Journal: Microeconomics 14 (3): 35–75. DOI: 10.1257/mic.20200041Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D71 Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior