An Economic Theory of DemocracyThis book seeks to elucidate its subject-the governing of democratic state-by making intelligible the party politics of democracies. Downs treats this differently than do other students of politics. His explanations are systematically related to, and deducible from, precisely stated assumptions about the motivations that attend the decisions of voters and parties and the environment in which they act. He is consciously concerned with the economy in explanation, that is, with attempting to account for phenomena in terms of a very limited number of facts and postulates. He is concerned also with the central features of party politics in any democratic state, not with that in the United States or any other single country. |
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... position is near them . In such maneuvering , there is much room for skill because different voters assign different weights to the same policies . For example , assume that there are two social groups , farmers and workers , whose ...
... position , which we call Z ' . Thus it appears that competition forces the party which commits itself first to support a position that is both optimal and undominated by any other positions - a position the opposition obviously cannot ...
... position . Since each knows this , the general incentive even to seek optimal positions is reduced , further lowering the proba- bility that they will be achieved . In addition , uncertainty reduces the ability of the winning party to ...