You are closely following the elections in your country this year
The two main candidates who are running for president belong to the two biggest parties that are on opposing ends of the political spectrum—the Conservative Right and the Left Alliance. There are also a few independent candidates. You have decided that you will cast your vote depending on each candidate's stance on various issues like foreign policy, gun rights, taxes, gay marriage, and healthcare. As the campaigns heat up, you notice that the viewpoints expressed by both parties seem to converge to the center rather than being extreme left or right opinions. Given that the candidate with the highest number of votes wins the elections, what do you think could explain this convergence?
One of the factors that may explain the convergence of political views is the Median Voter Theorem. There are usually fewer people with extreme political bliss points; most voters' preferences are moderate. According to the Median Voter Theorem, given that voters' preferences are single-peaked, the political bliss point of the median voter is likely to prevail in an election. The median voter's preferences lie in the middle of the distribution of voter preferences, meaning that he or she has equal numbers of voters to his left and right. Political parties that recognize this fact would attempt to appeal to the median voter. So with political competition, there will be policy convergence among parties competing for office: The parties will all run for office on a platform offering to implement the median voters' preferences. This could explain why the views of political parties or candidates seem to converge to the center and appear less extreme during elections.
A-head: CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
Concept: The Median Voter Theorem, political convergence
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