Question

State and explain the Downsian model of electoral competition

Answer 1

The Hotelling-Downs (downsian) model is for an election which determine who will get to hold a

particular political office. This model assumed that there are two contenders for the office, who

they referred to as political parties.

Voters are assumed to have single-peaked preferences. They hold a certain “bliss point” along a single dimension. For example, taxation. You would be okay with a 15% tax-rate. You find it reasonable, but anything greater or less you prefer less to your bliss point of 15%. The same concept is applied to political ideologies.

In the US system, we have seen a bliss point along a Left-Right political system. Suppose you are an ultra-liberal and be on the far left of the spectrum or be very conservative and be on the right. Or you could be moderate and be in the middle. What follows is that the median voter will always decide the election. In the median, you will have at least 50% of the vote.

By this we mean that if a candidate wishes to win a two-party election, he must take the position of the median voter. He cannot take any other position for fear of losing.