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Cycles and instability in politics. Evidence from the 2009 Danish municipal elections

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  • Malthe Munkøe

Abstract

Social choice theory predicts that political processes are prone to instability or outright chaos, yet the evidence that actual politics is dominated by the phenomena identified in the literature is somewhat anecdotal and widely contested. In order to systematically assess the degree to which politics is affected by cyclicality or chaos as predicted by social choice theorists we study the outcome of the 2009 municipal elections in Denmark. This yields a total of 97 cases, which allows for a systematic assessment of the frequency of cycling through a large-n study. Evidence of four cyclical results is presented. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Malthe Munkøe, 2014. "Cycles and instability in politics. Evidence from the 2009 Danish municipal elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 383-397, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:158:y:2014:i:3:p:383-397
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-012-0021-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social choice; Condorcet cycle; McKelvey chaos theorem; Municipal politics; Danish politics; D71;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

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