Deck 22: Political Choices

Question 1

Suppose that two candidates in a local election are trying to develop their policy positions regarding how much their town should spend on education. The numbers break down as follows.
According to the median-voter theorem, how much will the town spend on education?

Answer 1

Median voter theorem:
Median voters refers to the voter whose preferences is lies in the middle of the all other voter choice. In electoral system, the median voter system signifies those voters whose preferences are in the middle of the set of voters. Hence through majority role it produces the optimum output.
Median voters:
Median voters refers to the voter whose preferences is lies in the middle of the all other voter choice.
The total population in the town is 870 people. A candidate should get at least 436 people support to win in the election. Three hundred and eight people support if the candidate ready to spend 13% on education. To get at least 436 people support, the candidate must select the spending of 17% on education. If candidate spend 17% on education, then the candidate is getting 600 people's support.

Question 2

Assume there's an election coming up in which voters need to decide between two candidates on the question of taxes. Polls indicate the following attitudes about taxes among likely voters.
Candidate A proposes a 20 percent tax, and Candidate B a 15 percent tax. According to the median-voter theorem, which candidate will win?

Answer 2

Median voters:
Median voters refers to the voter whose preferences is lies in the middle of the all other voter choice.
Median voter theorem:
Median voter theorem assumes that the voters are clearly revealing their preferences. Voters rank according to their own preferences, without influence of other persons. In other word, no one is influenced by other people in the process of ranking their preferences. This theory states that by achieving the median voter preference, it would help to increase the benefits of majority of the people. Thus, the median voter model explains the reason for politicians approach the median voter model in selecting the public policies.To win the election the candidate should get at least 51% of supporters. To get at least 51% of supporters, the candidate should propose 20% of the tax. Since candidate 'A' proposes 20% tax rate, candidate 'A' would win in the election.

Question 3

A football team is voting for a captain based on how many times the captain would have the team would practice per week. The table below shows the number of team members in favor of various numbers of practices per week.
a. If the team is choosing between three captains-Buck, Jim, and Brian-can we use the median-voter theorem?
b. Assume that at the last minute, Buck decides to withdraw from the race. Can we use the median-voter theorem for the race as it stands now?
c. If you can use the median-voter theorem to predict the result without Buck, how many times will the team practice? If you cannot use the theorem, what two answers can you rule out?
d. Assume that two more players join the team before the vote. They both prefer to practice 10 times a week. If you can use the medianvoter theorem to predict the result without Buck, how many times will the team practice? If you cannot use the theorem, what two answers can you rule out?

Answer 3

Median voters:
Median voters refers to the voter whose preferences is lies in the middle of the all other voter choice.
Median voter theorem:
Median voter theorem assumes that the voters are clearly revealing their preferences. Voters rank according to their own preferences, without influence of other persons. In other word, no one is influenced by other people in the process of ranking their preferences. This theory states that by achieving the median voter preference, it would help to increase the benefits of majority of the people. Thus, median voter model explains the reason for politicians approach the median voter model in selecting the public policies.a.
Violation of median voter theorem:
Median voter theorem deals with the two people and one policy. Since there is a three candidates and multiple policy placed in a continuum, median voter theorem cannot be used to analyze this given issue.
b.
Withdrawing one person:
Median voter theorem deals with the two people and one policy. Since there are two candidates and one policy dimension, the median voter theorem can be used now.c.
Total number of practice in a week:
There are 41 people in the team. To win in the election, it requires 21 team mate support for a candidate. Since 4 times of practice in a week provides 21 players support, the candidate would prefer the 4 times in a week. Thus, the team practices 4 times in a week.
c.
Total number of practice in a week with 2 more team mates:
There are 43 people in the team. To win in the election, it requires 22 team mate support for a candidate. The 4 times of practice in a week provides 21 players support which is not enough to win in the election. To get support at least 23 people the candidate should select 6 times per week. This policy provides 31 people support. Thus, the team practices 6 times in a week.

Question 4

Suppose we are trying to predict the positions that three candidates will take on who should be eligible for public-housing subsidies (e.g., poor families, the elderly, poor families with children, and so on). Can we use the median-voter theorem to analyze this problem? Explain why or why not, based on which of the assumptions of the median-voter theorem are met by this situation.

Question 5

Three friends are trying to decide where to go to dinner. There are four restaurants nearby: Thai, Italian, Tex-Mex, and sushi. Assume the friends have the following preferences:

a. The friends decide to hold a majority vote that pits the Thai place against the Italian; the winner of that vote against the Tex-Mex; and then the next winner against the sushi. Which restaurant do they end up going to?
b. If they vote on sushi versus Tex-Mex, the winner against Italian, and then the winner against Thai, which restaurant will they choose?
c. Which of the criteria for an ideal voting system is violated in this example?

Question 6

In researching a voting system, you discover that it obeys three of the four criteria of an ideal voting system: transitivity, irrelevance of independent alternatives, and unanimity. With this information, what else do you know about this system? How can you be sure?

Question 7

In a runoff election, if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the first round of voting, the top two candidates face each other in a second round. Let's say that people voting on Candidates A, B, C, and D in a runoff election have the following preferences.
a. Does anyone receive an outright majority in the first round? If so, which candidate? If not, which two candidates move on to the second round, and which of them wins?
b. Suppose Candidate A drops out of the race. Does any candidate now receive an outright majority in the first round? If so, which candidate? If not, which two candidates move on to the second round, and which of them wins?
c. Does this situation violate the independence of irrelevant alternatives?

Question 8

Every year the residents of a historical town gather to determine how much to spend on their park, 10 percent or 15 percent of the budget. If everyone votes for the same percentage, they will spend that amount, unless the year before everyone voted for the opposite percentage, in which case they spend the average of the two. What characteristic of the ideal voting system is violated in this example?

Question 9

According to the rational voter theory, will the following increase or decrease voter turnout?
a. Electronic voting machines make the process of casting a ballot faster and less complicated.b. 24-hour news networks emphasize how close they expect the election to be, with only a few thousand votes deciding the outcome.c. The number of polling stations increases.d. Pollsters predict a landslide victory for the incumbent candidate a few days before the election.

Question 10

Compare a national presidential election that receives round-the-clock media coverage with an obscure local race for a state house seat. Which imposes higher costs on people seeking to become informed voters, and why? Which carries higher benefits to voting, and why?

Question 11

Determine whether each of the following represents rational ignorance.a. Doug doesn't know the return on his retirement account in the last quarter or the types of investments that comprise the account.b. Sally doesn't know about a new provision in nuclear energy regulation, which is decided by a national panel overseen by nuclear physicists.c. Jim doesn't know whether to support new requirements for licensing among city contractors.d. Tom doesn't know the average price of a parking ticket, despite parking on the street every day.

Question 12

Explain whether you think the following changes in a voting system would increase or decrease the number of votes cast.
a. Before casting their ballot, voters are required to watch a 30-minute video with facts about the issues at hand, greatly increasing the information they have about the issues.
b. A new cellphone app allows you to vote by sending a text to your local Board of Elections.
c. After voting, voters can elect to receive a small pin that allows everyone to know that they voted.

Question 13

For each of the following, state who benefits and who bears the costs, and whether the costs and benefits are concentrated or diffuse. Based on this assessment, predict which side is likely to get its way.a. A rubber producer lobbies the government to prohibit the import of cheaper foreign rubber, driving up the cost of consumer goods.
b. The government increases federal gas taxes by 1 cent per gallon to finance building high-speed train routes between major East Coast cities.

Question 14

The "International Trade" chapter discussed the trade restrictions that limit imports of clothing into the U.S. and Europe from certain clothingmanufacturing companies. Explain why a policy like this might persist even if it was unpopular with the majority of voters.

Question 15

For each of the following conditions, determine whether a collective-action problem exists.
a. Diffuse benefits, diffuse costs.b. Diffuse benefits, concentrated costs.c. Concentrated benefits, diffuse costs.d. Concentrated benefits, concentrated costs.

Question 16

As part of a plan to subsidize avocado production, farmers suggest that the costs of a subsidy should be paid by grocery-store owners (who will presumably benefit from higher sales of avocados). Are there concentrated benefits in this situation? Are there diffuse costs? Is there a collective-action problem? Explain your answer.

Question 17

Decide which of these labels best fits each of the following situations: rent-seeking, corruption, or bureaucratic capture. (If more than one is potentially applicable, pick the one that is the most narrowly tailored to the scenario.)
a. A contract manager at a government department is bribed to ensure that his friend's company gets a construction contract even though it was not the lowest bidder.
b. A senior-citizens group lobbies the city government to spend more on special public-transit shuttles for the elderly.
c. The president appoints a former head of an investment bank to the Securities and Exchange Commission (which oversees capital markets and enforces financial regulations).
d. The head of a local teachers' union offers support to a political candidate in exchange for her promise to spend more of the state budget on teacher salaries.

Question 18

Do collective-action problems contribute to or discourage rent-seeking? Explain your answer.

Question 19

Determine whether each of the following shifts is likely to increase or decrease the prevalence of rent-seeking.a. The spread of smartphones enables more widespread access to information.
b. Judges strike down a law that forces politicians to report when they receive a gift worth over $500.
c. Congress passes a law requiring lobbyists to spend at least two years in another unrelated position before getting hired in government to regulate the industries they were advocating for as lobbyists.

Question 20

Explain why having a minimum voting age may cause rent-seeking