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What is it about the US political system that forces things back towards a evenly split equilibrium? I don't agree with the typical "vendors on a beach" (move
by jbpetersen 9y ago
What is it about the US political system that forces things back towards a evenly split equilibrium?
I don't agree with the typical "vendors on a beach" (move towards the center until you each grab the half that's closer to you) metaphor since it seems to discount the possibility of being so far away from people that they're alienated to the point of non-participation. I could see it being cyclic though between that and periods of recapturing alienated demographics.
- thaumasiotes 9y agoI'm not sure I follow your thinking here. Someone alienated to the point of non-participation, by definition, doesn't vote. They can't be relevant to measuring vote share. The mere fact that parties are able to change their positions ensures that they will. They want to live. Policy positions form an infinite-dimensional space, unlike a conceptual one-dimensional beach; it will always be possible to divide voters in half by some combination (actually, many different combinations) of positions.
- jbpetersen 9y agoTo clarify I mean cases where someone who didn't vote in one election may change their mind in the next if the right candidate shows up. If you're slicing a higher-dimensional space and can only slice so far from a point you start slicing from, then the problem gets even more interesting.