During primaries, the ideological location of the median voter would be shifted. By arguing that Rep. Paul's ideology is closer to a Democrat's standpoint, his opponents are trying to move him further from the primary's median in the eyes of voters. What is almost ironic about this is that a similar shift would theoretically benefit Rep. Paul in a race against a Democrat (assuming a one-dimensional scale). In reality, since there is more than one scale in which candidates are compared, it is difficult to say whether this argument would hold weight in different dimensions (ie. in some areas Paul is closer to the median and in others he is farther away, but in different directions and dimensions than left and right).
Friday, September 16, 2011
From Primaries to the General Election
In this article, the idea that Ron Paul's viewpoints to be more similar to those held by members of the Democratic Party is criticized. The arguments being made are interesting to think of when applied to the median voter theory.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Music and Positive Externalities
The EU has recently voted to extend copyright
on sound recordings from 50-70 years, allowing the music industry to claim
intellectual property rights, and therefore royalties, for longer.
The record music industry has seen a very sharp decline in
profits since the advent of the internet and file sharing, illegal downloading,
etc. In the past there might have been some positive externalities in the record
music industry (eg. CDs could be copied onto cassette disks and distributed),
but its current scale is unprecedented.
The prices paid for music no longer come close to reflecting the Social
Marginal Benefit as more and more people can enjoy music for free. The Coase Theorem states that the allocation inefficiencies
that result from externalities can be eliminated when property rights are
clearly defined. Critics of
the new law say that it will not benefit the artists themselves but rather
their record labels. However, who receives the property rights is irrelevant for
efficiency reasons; as long as property rights are assigned, prices should
increase towards the SMB. Still,
it remains doubtful if the increased copyright laws are going to truly reduce
the industry’s positive production externality since it will only affect legally
exchanged music, and not illegally downloaded music which seems to be the
biggest culprit in creating this externality anyway.
The Republican Primary and the median voter
The current race for the Republican presidential nomination is a great example of how Anthony Downs’ median voter theory can dictate campaign strategy. The candidates have to balance the need to win the Republican nomination by exhibiting strong conservative views, especially with the rise of the Tea Party movement, and the need to lay down a solid track record that will appeal to the median voter in the general election.
The two attached links provide analysis of Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry's campaign thus far. According to Washington Post reporter/blogger, Chris Cillizza, Ron Paul has failed to abide by Downs' theory that candidates need to formulate policy to win elections, instead of winning elections to formulate policies. Ron Paul's view on the causes of the 9/11 attacks showed that he was unwilling to compromise his views to attract the most votes. This has helped keep Paul near the bottom in the polls. The Politico article and the NPR article discuss the front-runners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney respective campaign strategies. Rick Perry has come out with a strong conservative campaign that has helped vault him into the lead of the GOP nomination race, while Romney, according to the blogs, has remained less conservative than Perry and therefore more electable in the general election. These articles exhibit the interesting dynamic of trying to win the Republican nomination while also being attractive to the median voter in the general election.
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