Electing Legislatures

Abstract

Policy outcomes in representative democracies arise out of legislative decision-making, and out of legislatures that consist of more than one elected official. The preferences of policy-oriented voters over possible representatives, therefore, will be induced both by their preferences over policy outcomes and the institutional structure of legislative decision-making. This observation is, I believe, fundamental to developing models, and to an understanding of the election of legislatures. Models of elected legislatures that assume, at the outset, individuals who vote on the basis of the policy positions of the available candidates, without regard to the legislative implications of their vote, misspecify both individual payoffs and the choice set.

Additional details