POLI 212 Lecture Notes - Ideal Point, Centralisation
23 Nov 2012
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4: the mechanics of governing: coalition governments in europe. Coalition gov not going to be norm in majoritarian regime. Consensus democ regime implies prevalence of coalition gov (norm) Diff electoral sys (pr/first past post), party sys (#), issue space. Argument: expectation that get two parties on average e/person has posit on that 1 imp issue (ideal point), frequency distrib of voters. Vote maximizing machines, need 50% + 1 to form gov. Parties will tend to move towards electoral middle, voters when vote minimized distance. Towards middle, median voter person that divides electorate to two equal halves b/w ideal point + posit of party. Assump: parties = vote maximizers, voters vote + don"t abstain. No matter how far party moves in this direction, if ideal point is there + this party is closer to ideal point than another party, that is the party you vote for. Identities of parties may change over time logic: should expect tendency towards 2party sys.
