When to Run and When to Hide: Electoral Coordination and Exit

Journal article

Elections represent a coordination problem for voters and candidates for office. Electoral coordination is also the causal mechanism behind any explanation of the relationship between electoral systems and the number of parties. I present a dynamic model of electoral coordination with candidate exit. The model extends two important results from the literature to a dynamic setting. The extension of Duverger's Law and the median-voter theorem also offers a simultaneous prediction of the number of parties and their ideological positions. Coordination failure is shown to be possible in a mixed-strategy equilibrium.

Authors: Indridason, I

• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell
• Journal: Economics and Politics
• Volume: Vol. 20, 1
• Pages: 80–105
• Publication date: 2007-09-10