Question

1. Consider a three-member legislature operating under an open rule in which, in contrast to the assumption in Baron and Ferejohn, once a proposal y has been made any member may be recognized next to either move the previous question or to offer an amendment.

   1. a) Characterize the stationary equilibrium in this case.

   2. b) For which values of delta is the equilibrium universalistic and for which is it

      majoritarian?

Answer 1

1.This paper presents a dynamic model of consumer trading on the primary, secondary, and scrap markets for a stochastically deteriorating durable good in a stationary economy with perfect information and no transaction costs. We explicitly model the trading process by tracking each durable from its "birth" in the primary market, through its sequence of owners in the secondary market, until its "death" in the scrap market. We prove that a stationary equilibrium tests, characterize the distribution of consumer holdings of durables, and show that equilibrium asset prices are shadow prices to a particular regenerative optimal stopping problem. We show that each heterogeneous agent equilibrium is observationally equivalent to a homogeneous agent equilibrium. We derive a differential equation for equilibrium rental rates, and a functional equation which links rental rates to asset prices. These equations show precisely how the structure of durable prices and rental rates embody the functional form and population distribution of preferences and the technological characteristics of durable goods.

2.

Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or agenda that asserts that a majority (sometimes categorized by religion, language, social class, or some other identifying factor) of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society. This traditional view has come under growing criticism, and democracies have increasingly included constraints on what the parliamentary majority can do, in order to protect citizens' fundamental rights.^[1]

This should not be confused with the concept of a majoritarian electoral system, which is a simple electoral system that usually gives a majority of seats to the party with a plurality of votes. A parliament elected by this method may be called a majoritarian parliament (e.g., the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Parliament of India).

Under a democratic majoritarian political structure, the majority would not exclude any minority from future participation in the democratic process. Majoritarianism is sometimes pejoratively referred to by its opponents as "ochlocracy" or "tyranny of the majority". Majoritarianism is often referred to as majority rule, which may refer to a majority class ruling over a minority class, while not referring to the decision process called majority rule. It is a belief that the majority community should be able to rule a country in whichever way it wants.