Voting Rules in a Changing Environment

Autor: Antoine Loeper, Wioletta Dziuda
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: SSRN Electronic Journal.
ISSN: 1556-5068
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2500777
Popis: Inclusive voting rules are rules that require the approval of a greater set of policy makers than a simple majority. Using a dynamic voting model with stochastic shocks, we identify a novel distortive effect of inclusive voting rules. Under inclusive voting rules, the identity of the pivotal player depends on the policy that is currently in place. As a result, policy makers distort their voting behavior in favor of alternatives that make them more likely to be pivotal in future votes. This effect leads them to vote in a more polarized way, and makes the policy less responsive to the environment. These distortions increase as the voting rule becomes more inclusive, and as the environment becomes more volatile. Because of these distortions, biasing the voting rule in favor of some policies can perversely bias the equilibrium outcome against them.
Databáze: OpenAIRE