A Unified Theory of Voting

This Book Addresses The Questions: How Do Voters Use Their Own Issue Positions And Those Of Candidates To Decide How To Vote? Does A Voter Tend To Choose The Candidate Who Most Closely Shares The Views Of The Voter Or Rather A Candidate Who Holds More Extreme Views Due To The Fact That The Voters Discount The Candidates'' Abilities To Implement Policy. The Authors Develop A Unified Model That Incorporates These And Other Voter Motivations And Assess Its Empirical Predictions - For Both Voter Choice And Candidate Strategy - In The Us 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.