True or False: The median-voter model explains why politicians so often stake out fringe positions that appeal only to a small segment of the electorate.

Short Answer

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The statement is true.

Step by step solution

01

Relevance of median voter model in elections 

The median voter model says that the median voter who does not have any strong preferences for any political party decides the outcome of the elections.

It is based on the assumption that with consistent voting preferences and majority rule decisions, the decisions of the extreme voters with stronger preferences can not be altered. However, they would prefer a median solution to an opposite extreme position. Thus, the choice of the median voter dominates the election result.

02

Reason for political parties appealing to a small segment of the electorate 

Political candidates know that they do not have to worry about the voters who already have a stronger preference for their party. At the same time, they can not affect other people who have a stronger preference for other political parties. Thus, the only option left is those who hold the middle position.

Political parties appeal to these median voters and try to shift their views towards themselves by holding positions on issues that favor these median voters, who form a small segment of the electorate.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Tammy Hall is the mayor of a large US city. She has just established the Office of Window Safety. Because windows sometimes break and spray glass shards, every window in the city will now have to pass an annual safety inspection. Property owners must pay the $5-per-window inspection cost—and by the way, Tammy has made her nephew the new head of the Office of Window Safety. This new policy is an example of _______.

a. political corruption

b. earmarks

c. rent-seeking

d. adverse selection

Consider a specific example of the special-interest effect and the collective-action problem. In 2012, it was estimated that the total value of all corn-production subsidies in the United States was about \(3 billion. The population of the United States was approximately 300 million people that year.

a. On average, how much did corn subsidies cost per person in the United States in 2012? (Hint: A billion is a 1 followed by nine zeros. A million is a 1 followed by six zeros.)

b. If each person in the United States is willing to spend only \)0.50 to support efforts to overturn the corn subsidy, and if anti-subsidy advocates can only raise funds from 10 percent of the population, how much money will they be able to raise for their lobbying efforts?

c. If the recipients of corn subsidies donate just 1 percent of the total amount that they receive in subsidies, how much could they raise to support lobbying efforts to continue the corn subsidy?

d. By how many dollars does the amount raised by the recipients of the corn subsidy exceed the amount raised by the opponents of the corn subsidy?

What are the two characteristics of public goods? Explain the significance of each for public provision as opposed to private provision. What is the free-rider problem as it relates to public goods? Is US border patrol a public good or a private good? Why? What type of good is a satellite TV? Explain.

What are the pluses and minuses of corporate location subsidies? Why do politicians like them so much? Would you be surprised to know that many of the 238 cities bidding for Amazon's HQ2 offered much larger location subsidies than did New York City and Alexandria, Virginia? Explain.

Does traditional one-person-one-vote (1p1v) majority voting allow voters to directly express differences in strengths of preference? Does quadratic voting do any better? Discuss the differences and then explain which system you prefer, and why.

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