POL SCI 40 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Ideal Point, The American Voter

• School: UCLA
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL SCI 40
• Professor: Chris Tausanovitch

Document Summary

Lecture 15: voting and elections, part 2 (cid:894)he (cid:449)rote part 2 do(cid:374)(cid:859)t k(cid:374)o(cid:449) (cid:449)hy(cid:895) Everyone predicted that the election would be close, and it was. Making predictions (such as in polls when not everyone answers to fill those gaps): Using data from past elections to pull out patterns: when an event happened, how was it reflected on the pres. Many factors: starter: people vote for the candidate who takes the position(s) they most prefer (in some issues/policies) Utility graphs (whate(cid:448)er(cid:859)s (cid:272)loser to (cid:449)hat you want) For (cid:373)ost people, i(cid:374) (cid:373)ost situatio(cid:374)s, there(cid:859)s su(cid:272)h a thi(cid:374)g as too (cid:373)u(cid:272)h of a good thi(cid:374)g. They have an ideal point that crossing it is not as preferred. I. e. want more spending on defense but not too much. People assume the pres can do what they propose. Not actually true, depend on the other branches and other people in gov. Voting for whoever is closer to me: talking about space in policy.