A Unified Theory of Voting

Professors Merrill And Grofman Develop A Unified Model That Incorporates Voter Motivations And Assesses Its Empirical Predictions--For Both Voter Choice And Candidate Strategy--In The United States Norway And France. The Analyses Show That A Combination Of Proximity Direction Discounting And Party Id Are Compatible With The Mildly But Not Extremely Divergent Policies That Are Characteristic Of Many Two-Party And Multiparty Electorates. All Of These Motivations Are Necessary To Understand The Linkage Between Candidate Issue Positions And Voter Preferences.