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Imperfectly Informed Voters and Strategic Extremism

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  • Enriqueta Aragonès
  • Dimitrios Xefteris

Abstract

We analyze a unidimensional model of two-candidate electoral competition where voters have imperfect information about the candidates' policy proposals, that is, voters cannot observe the exact policy proposals of the candidates but only which candidate offers the most leftist/rightist platform. We assume that candidates are purely office motivated and that one candidate enjoys a valence advantage over the other. We characterize the unique Sequential Equilibrium in very-weakly undominated strategies of the game. In this equilibrium the behavior of the two candidates tends to maximum extremism, due to the voters' lack of information. But it may converge or diverge depending on the size of the advantage. For small values of the advantage candidates converge to the extreme policy most preferred by the median and for large values of the advantage candidates strategies diverge: each candidate specializes in a different extreme policy. These results are robust to the introduction of a proportion of well informed voters. In this case the degree of extremism decreases when the voters become more informed.

Suggested Citation

  • Enriqueta Aragonès & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2013. "Imperfectly Informed Voters and Strategic Extremism," Working Papers 725, Barcelona School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:725
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    Cited by:

    1. Gilles Serra, 2018. "The electoral strategies of a populist candidate: Does charisma discourage experience and encourage extremism?," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 30(1), pages 45-73, January.
    2. Ružica Savčić & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2021. "Apostolic voting," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 1400-1417, November.
    3. Balart, Pau & Casas, Agustin & Troumpounis, Orestis, 2022. "Technological change, campaign spending and polarization," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    4. Aragonès, Enriqueta & Xefteris, Dimitrios, 2017. "Voters' private valuation of candidates' quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 121-130.
    5. Dimitrios Xefteris & Didier Laussel & Michel Le Breton, 2017. "Simple centrifugal incentives in spatial competition," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 46(2), pages 357-381, May.
    6. Belguise, Margot, 2024. "Red Herrings: A Model of Attention-Hijacking by Politicians," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1492, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    7. Dimitrios Xefteris, 2018. "Candidate valence in a spatial model with entry," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 341-359, September.
    8. Balart, Pau, 2021. "Semiorder preferences and price-oriented buyers in a Hotelling model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 394-407.
    9. Bernard Grofman & Orestis Troumpounis & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2016. "Electoral competition with primaries and quality asymmetries," Working Papers 135286117, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    10. Margot Belguise, 2024. "Red herrings: A model of attention-hijacking by politicians," Discussion Papers 2024-01, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    11. Belguise, Margot, 2024. "Red Herrings : A Model of Attention-Hijacking by Politicians," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 86, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    12. Livio Di Lonardo, 2017. "Valence uncertainty and the nature of the candidate pool in elections," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 29(2), pages 327-350, April.
    13. Konstantinos Matakos & Dimitrios Xefteris, 2017. "When extremes meet: Redistribution in a multiparty model with differentiated parties," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 29(4), pages 546-577, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Downsian model; imperfect information; advantaged candidate; maximum differentiation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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