Ideology as Opinion: A Spatial Model of Common-Value Elections

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: McMurray, Joseph
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20160040
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 108-140
• 关键词: Condorcet Jury Theorem; Epistemic democracy; information aggregation; cognitive-dissonance; turnout; preferences; Abstention; STABILITY; CHOICE; POLICY

摘要

Spatial election literature attributes voters' political differences to irreconcilable conflicts of interest. Alternatively, voters may merely hold differing beliefs regarding which policies best promote the public interest, as in the classic common-value model of Condorcet (1785). This paper shows how a spatial version of the common-value model explains empirical patterns of public opinion, ideology, electoral margins, and participation that are puzzling from the standard perspective, suggesting that voters may implicitly view politics as a contest between truth and error. If so, this has important consequences for political analysis.