"The Vanishing Power of the Median Voter" (Diane Coyle)

Thesis

Median voter theorem used to explain why parties converge on the center. Today's polarization suggests the model is breaking down, possibly because politics is no longer one-dimensional.

3 possible explainations for the hollowed-out center

1. voters are less rational

2. new extreme entrants enter the political market

3. the single left-right spectrum has broken down into several dimensions so there is no stable outcome

Anthony Downs

An economic theory of democracy, the median voter theorem. the model is two ice-cream sellers who both end up at the center of the beach

Kenneth Arrow

The impossibility theorem; broad consensus is unachievable when everyone’s preferences count equally

Triangulation

Taking the middle position in the available policy territory

Link to textbook

Arrow challenges rousseau’s general will: there may be no single coherent will of the people.