POLITICAL ECONOMY: Why the Political World is Flat: An Endogenous “Left” and “Right” in Multidimensional Elections; Professor Joseph McMURRAY (Brigham Young University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes candidate positioning in multidimensional, common-interest elections. Candidates can polarize in various directions in equilibrium, giving structure to the common concern that issues might be bundled inefficiently. However, the only stable equilibrium efficiently bundles issues that are logically related. Consistently bundling issues in this way can explain why multidimensional policy decisions invariably reduce to the same single dimension.