IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jothpo/v14y2002i1p37-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Advantages of Ideological Cohesion

Author

Listed:
  • A. J. McGann

    (University of California, Irvine, amcgann@uci.edu)

Abstract

This article develops a model of parties in multi-party systems. Instead of treating parties as vote-maximizing candidates able to take any position, parties are assumed to be controlled or at least constrained by their supporters. The model relies on a process whereby supporters sort themselves between parties, as in Aldrich (1983) and the economics literature starting with Tiebout (1956). The results of the model are sensitive to the shape of the preference distribution, particularly its skewness. This can be used to explain how a cohesive minority may have more influence than a more dispersed majority, and why certain parties are systematically advantaged over others.

Suggested Citation

  • A. J. McGann, 2002. "The Advantages of Ideological Cohesion," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 14(1), pages 37-70, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:14:y:2002:i:1:p:37-70
    DOI: 10.1177/095169280201400104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095169280201400104
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/095169280201400104?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. B. Curtis Eaton & Richard G. Lipsey, 1975. "The Principle of Minimum Differentiation Reconsidered: Some New Developments in the Theory of Spatial Competition," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 42(1), pages 27-49.
    2. Comanor, William S., 1976. "The median voter rule and the theory of political choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1-2), pages 169-177.
    3. Westhoff, Frank, 1979. "Policy inferences from community choice models: A caution," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 535-549, October.
    4. Enelow,James M. & Hinich,Melvin J., 1984. "The Spatial Theory of Voting," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521275156, January.
    5. Bewley, Truman F, 1981. "A Critique of Tiebout's Theory of Local Public Expenditures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(3), pages 713-740, May.
    6. Konishi, Hideo, 1996. "Voting with Ballots and Feet: Existence of Equilibrium in a Local Public Good Economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 480-509, February.
    7. Hinich, Melvin J., 1977. "Equilibrium in spatial voting: The median voter result is an artifact," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 208-219, December.
    8. 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.
    9. Conley, John P. & Wooders, Myrna H., 1997. "Equivalence of the Core and Competitive Equilibrium in a Tiebout Economy with Crowding Types," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 421-440, May.
    10. Wooders, Myrna, 1980. "The Tiebout Hypothesis: Near Optimality in Local Public Good Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1467-1485, September.
    11. Westhoff, Frank, 1977. "Existence of equilibria in economies with a local public good," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 84-112, February.
    12. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    13. Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 1979. "Market models of local government: Exit, voting, and the land market," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 319-337, July.
    14. Greenberg, Joseph & Shitovitz, Benyamin, 1988. "Consistent voting rules for competitive local public goods economies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 223-236, December.
    15. Aldrich, John H., 1983. "A Downsian Spatial Model with Party Activism," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(4), pages 974-990, December.
    16. Davis, Otto A. & Hinich, Melvin J. & Ordeshook, Peter C., 1970. "An Expository Development of a Mathematical Model of the Electoral Process," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 64(2), pages 426-448, June.
    17. Kollman, Ken & Miller, John H & Page, Scott E, 1997. "Political Institutions and Sorting in a Tiebout Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 977-992, December.
    18. Kollman, Ken & Miller, John H. & Page, Scott E., 1992. "Adaptive Parties in Spatial Elections," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(4), pages 929-937, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. S. Phineas Upham & Lori Rosenkopf & Lyle H. Ungar, 2010. "Positioning knowledge: schools of thought and new knowledge creation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 83(2), pages 555-581, May.

    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. John P. Conley & Myrna Holtz Wooders, 1998. "The Tiebout Hypothesis: On the Existence of Pareto Efficient Competitive Equilibrium," Working Papers mwooders-98-06, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    2. Allouch, Nizar & Conley, John P. & Wooders, Myrna, 2009. "Anonymous price taking equilibrium in Tiebout economies with a continuum of agents: Existence and characterization," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(9-10), pages 492-510, September.
    3. Nizar Allouch & John P. Conley & Myrna Wooders, 2006. "Anonymous Price Taking Equilibrium in Tiebout Economies with Unbounded Club Sizes," Working Papers 556, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    4. Conley, John P. & Wooders, Myrna H., 2001. "Tiebout Economies with Differential Genetic Types and Endogenously Chosen Crowding Characteristics," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 261-294, June.
    5. Nizar Allouch & John P. Conley & Myrna Wooders, 2006. "Anonymous Price Taking Equilibrium in Tiebout Economies with Unbounded Club Sizes," Working Papers 556, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    6. Guillaume Haeringer, 2000. "Stable Coalition Structures with Common Decision Scheme," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1077, Econometric Society.
    7. Guillaume Haeringer, 2000. "Stable Coalition Structures with Fixed Decision Schme," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 471.00, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    8. Marcus Berliant & John H. Y. Edwards, 2004. "Efficient Allocations in Club Economies," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(1), pages 43-63, February.
    9. Gravel, Nicolas & Oddou, Rémy, 2014. "The segregative properties of endogenous jurisdiction formation with a land market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 15-27.
    10. Thomas. J. Nechyba, 1997. "Existence of equilibrium and stratification in local and hierarchical Tiebout economies with property taxes and voting," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 10(2), pages 277-304.
    11. John P. Conley & Robert Driskill & Ping Wang, 2019. "Capitalization, decentralization, and intergenerational spillovers in a Tiebout economy with a durable public good," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(1), pages 1-27, February.
    12. Paul Edward Johnson, 1990. "Unraveling in Democratically Governed Groups," Rationality and Society, , vol. 2(1), pages 4-34, January.
    13. Roger Hewett & Charles A. Holt & Georgia Kosmopoulou & Christine Kymn & Cheryl X. Long & Shabnam Mousavi & Sudipta Sarangi, 2005. "A Classroom Exercise: Voting by Ballots and Feet," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 72(1), pages 253-263, July.
    14. Kopp, Andreas, 1999. "Local public goods, adaptive migration decisions and agglomerative bias," Kiel Working Papers 942, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. James Cochran & David Curry & Rajesh Radhakrishnan & Jon Pinnell, 2014. "Political engineering: optimizing a U.S. Presidential candidate’s platform," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 215(1), pages 63-87, April.
    16. Caplin, Andrew & Nalebuff, Barry, 1997. "Competition among Institutions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 306-342, February.
    17. Kessler, Anke S. & Lulfesmann, Christoph, 2005. "Tiebout and redistribution in a model of residential and political choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 501-528, February.
    18. Gravel, Nicolas & Thoron, Sylvie, 2007. "Does endogenous formation of jurisdictions lead to wealth-stratification?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 569-583, January.
    19. Conley, John P. & Konishi, Hideo, 2002. "Migration-proof Tiebout equilibrium: existence and asymptotic efficiency," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 243-262, November.
    20. Milchtaich, Igal & Winter, Eyal, 2002. "Stability and Segregation in Group Formation," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 318-346, February.

    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:sae:jothpo:v:14:y:2002:i:1:p:37-70. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.