The Vote Production Function (VPF) has a party's vote depending on (a) its potential vote and (b) the party organization which actualizes it - 'political capital'. Empirical work suggests that moving to the centre would increase your vote if only you could hold political capital constant. The relative weights of the factors in the VPF will determine whether parties converge or polarize ideologically and politicians' rent-seeking behaviour. In most cases, the more important political capital is, the greater the extent of rent seeking. There is thus a welfare case for sidelining party organizations. Compulsory voting might help.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government P16 - Economic Systems - - Capitalist Systems - - - Political Economy of Capitalism
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