Electoral Thresholds as Coordination Devices

B-Tier
Journal: Scandanavian Journal of Economics
Year: 2017
Volume: 119
Issue: 2
Pages: 346-374

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

In this paper, we study one‐person–one‐vote parliamentary elections where voters care both about the winner of elections and about the composition of the parliament. Parties enter the parliament if and only if their vote share exceeds some predetermined threshold. We show that equilibria generically exist in which all parties obtain a non‐degenerate vote‐share and, perhaps more importantly, we show that the size of the electoral threshold acts as a coordination device, which crucially affects the win prospects of the Condorcet winner party. In particular, we argue that the win prospects of the Condorcet winner party decrease with the size of the entry threshold.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:bla:scandj:v:119:y:2017:i:2:p:346-374
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-26