Distributive politics and electoral competition (Q1599829)

The institution of electoral politics is considered. The authors use the classical Downsian model of electoral competition in which two parties compete for the vote of the electorate in a symmetric zero-sum, perfect information game. This paper raises the question of the level of inequality generated by Downsian competition for redistribution. The apparatus of a general spatial model of elections is applied. In the division problem the basic results are threefold: 1. The authors derive how far one can go by sticking to pure strategies and narrowing the set of possible outcomes on the basis of dominance-like arguments; 2. optimal strategies are exhibited; 3. the authors offer a sample of quantitative estimates of how unequal the distributions proposed at equilibrium are.