IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sochwe/v54y2020i2d10.1007_s00355-019-01175-9.html

Individual preferences and democratic processes: two theorems with implications for electoral politics

Author

Listed:
  • Kaushik Basu

    (Cornell University)

  • Tapan Mitra

    (Cornell University)

Abstract

The paper provides a complete characterization of Nash equilibria for games in which n candidates choose a strategy in the form of a platform, each from a circle of feasible platforms, with the aim of maximizing the stretch of the circle from where the candidate’s platform will receive support from the voters. Using this characterization, it is shown that if the sum of all players’ payoffs is 1, the Nash equilibrium payoff of each player in an arbitrary Nash equilibrium must be restricted to the interval $$ [1/2(n-1),2/(n+1)].$$[1/2(n-1),2/(n+1)]. This implies that in an election with four candidates, a candidate who is attracting less than one-sixth of the voters can do better by changing his or her strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaushik Basu & Tapan Mitra, 2020. "Individual preferences and democratic processes: two theorems with implications for electoral politics," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 54(2), pages 259-292, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:54:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s00355-019-01175-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-019-01175-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00355-019-01175-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00355-019-01175-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin J. Osborne, 1995. "Spatial Models of Political Competition under Plurality Rule: A Survey of Some Explanations of the Number of Candidates and the Positions They Take," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(2), pages 261-301, May.
    2. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 2015. "Intra-industry trade with Bertrand and Cournot oligopoly: The role of endogenous horizontal product differentiation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 157-165.
    3. Fujita,Masahisa & Thisse,Jacques-François, 2013. "Economics of Agglomeration," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107001411, Enero-Abr.
    4. James A. Brander & Barbara J. Spencer, 2015. "Endogenous Horizontal Product Differentiation under Bertrand and Cournot Competition: Revisiting the Bertrand Paradox," NBER Working Papers 20966, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Richard Schmalensee, 1978. "Entry Deterrence in the Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 305-327, Autumn.
    6. Pal, Debashis, 1998. "Does Cournot competition yield spatial agglomeration?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 49-53, July.
    7. Claude D'Aspremont & Louis Gevers, 1977. "Equity and the Informational Basis of Collective Choice," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(2), pages 199-209.
    8. Kenneth J. Arrow, 1950. "A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4), pages 328-328.
    9. Steven C. Salop, 1979. "Monopolistic Competition with Outside Goods," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, Spring.
    10. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    11. d'Aspremont, C & Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold & Thisse, J-F, 1979. "On Hotelling's "Stability in Competition"," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1145-1150, September.
    12. Matsushima, Noriaki, 2001. "Cournot competition and spatial agglomeration revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 175-177, November.
    13. Eric Maskin, 1978. "A Theorem on Utilitarianism," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(1), pages 93-96.
    14. Stokes, Donald E., 1963. "Spatial Models of Party Competition," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(2), pages 368-377, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Basu,Kaushik & Mitra,Tapan, 2016. "Nash on a rotary : two theorems with implications for electoral politics," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7701, The World Bank.
    2. Buechel, Berno & Roehl, Nils, 2015. "Robust equilibria in location games," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(2), pages 505-517.
    3. Gupta, Barnali & Lai, Fu-Chuan & Pal, Debashis & Sarkar, Jyotirmoy & Yu, Chia-Ming, 2004. "Where to locate in a circular city?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 759-782, June.
    4. Andreea Cosnita-Langlais & Eric Langlais, 2024. "Cournot Competition on the Hotelling Line Yields at Most Three Varieties," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 65(3), pages 669-704, November.
    5. Kaushik Basu, 2017. "The globe and the circle," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 93-101, December.
    6. Tomasz Kopczewski & Maciej Pogorzelski, 2009. "Influence of the size of the company on developing of decision-making process of the enterprise concerning the spatial location," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 23.
    7. Christopher Bleibtreu & Ulrike Stefani, 2024. "The interdependence between market structure and the quality of audited reports: the case of non-audit services," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 1524-1574, June.
    8. Simon Loertscher & Gerd Muehlheusser, 2008. "Dynamic Location Games," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1042, The University of Melbourne.
    9. Pierre Picard & Takatoshi Tabuchi, 2010. "Self-organized agglomerations and transport costs," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 42(3), pages 565-589, March.
    10. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Manaswini Bhalla & Kalysan Chatterjee & Jaideep Roy, 2014. "Ideological Dissent in Downsian Politics," Discussion Papers 14-04, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    11. Fabian Gouret & Guillaume Hollard & Stéphane Rossignol, 2011. "An empirical analysis of valence in electoral competition," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 37(2), pages 309-340, July.
    12. THARAKAN, Joe & THISSE, Jacques-François, 2000. "The importance of being small : size effects in international trade," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2000001, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    13. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2022. "Designing central bank digital currencies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 62-79.
    14. Paul B. Ellickson, 2013. "Supermarkets As A Natural Oligopoly," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 1142-1154, April.
    15. Andreea Cosnita-Langlais, 2011. "Cournot competition in spatial markets: a complementary result on complementarity," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(3), pages 2454-2467.
    16. Chia-Hung Sun & Jyh-Fa Tsai & Fu-Chuan Lai, 2017. "Spatial Cournot competition in a circular city with more than two dispatches," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 68(4), pages 413-442, December.
    17. Takanori AGO, 2015. "Competition between Cities and Their Spatial Structure," Discussion papers 15110, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Qiang Wang & Qi Chen, 2008. "Cournot competition and location choice with wage bargaining," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 12(22), pages 1-5.
    19. S. Baranzoni & P. Bianchi & L. Lambertini, 2000. "Multiproduct Firms, Product Differentiation, and Market Structure," Working Papers 368, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    20. Chen, Chin-Sheng & Lai, Fu-Chuan, 2008. "Location choice and optimal zoning under Cournot competition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 119-126, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:54:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s00355-019-01175-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.