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The number of parties and decision making in legislatures

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  • Bannikova, Marina
  • Jelnov, Artyom

Abstract

This paper proposes a model of a legislature, formed by several parties, which have to vote for or against a certain bill in the presence of a lobbyist who is interested in a certain outcome of the vote. We show that the ease of manipulating a legislature decision by the lobbyist is increasing with the number of parties. A high threshold leads to fewer parties represented, and consequently, decreases the ease of changing a legislature decision by the lobbyist. On the other hand, a high threshold may cause a misrepresentation of voters. We show that if the threshold is higher that 6%, the impact of the misrepresentation effect becomes significant.

Suggested Citation

  • Bannikova, Marina & Jelnov, Artyom, 2016. "The number of parties and decision making in legislatures," Working Papers 2072/266572, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/266572
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    References listed on IDEAS

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