Journal Articles

Strategic party heterogeneity

---

Political parties field heterogeneous candidates and send a variety of messages about their policy
positions. Yet most voting models maintain that office-seeking parties should enforce intraparty
homogeneity and cultivate clear party reputations. This article reconciles theory with reality by
identifying a strategic rationale for parties to pursue heterogeneity. I develop a model in which
two parties each select a distribution of potential candidates to compete in an upcoming election.
The model demonstrates that well-positioned parties should indeed offer homogeneous candidate
teams, but that parties with platforms distant from the median voter should cast a wide net.
Extensions allow for multiple candidate signals, voters who care about party platforms and candidates’ positions, and voter uncertainty.

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

Journal of Theoretical Politics

Call Number

-

Publisher

Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications., 2016

Collation

-

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0951-6298

Classification

NONE

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

Volume 28, Issue 3, July 2016; pp. 408–430

Subject(s)

polarization
Ambiguity
Party strategy
downsian model
party heterogeneity
party reputation

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment