The mean voter theorem suggests that all parties should rationally converge to the electoral center. Typically this leads to an outcome which is unattractive to the rich. This paper develops a general stochastic model of elections in which the electoral response is a¤ected by the valence (or...

Formal models of elections have emphasized the convergence of party leaders towards the center of the electoral distribution. This paper discusses various political episodes in British and US history to suggest that political divergence is generic. This leads to the inference that political...

In the last few years, a body of ideas based on political economy theory has been built up by North and Weingast, Olson, Przeworski, and Acemoglu and Robinson. One theme that emerges from this literature concerns the transition to democracy: why would dominant elites give up oligarchic power?...