Course Description
Examination of the building blocks of spatial voting theory and its application to studies of legislative process, judicial politics, and parliamentary procedure. Topics include the median voter theorem, properties of the majority preference relationship, multidimensional voting, and a brief introduction to empirical estimation of ideal points, among others.
Athena Title
SPATIAL VOTING MOD
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will learn spatial theories of political science that are applied to a wide variety of subjects. This includes mathematical and deductive models that enhance logic skills. Students who develop these skills should draw more clear conclusions from stated premises, and have a better understanding of the role of theory in research. They should also be able to apply these theories to empirical problems to use them in their own research. Students will be exposed to deductive proofs and learn the consequences of various electoral and institutional designs.
Topical Outline
Individual rationality Single dimensional spatial voting Elections with two alternatives Median voter theorem The Downsian model of mass elections Pivotal politics Multidimentional spatial voting The core McKelvey's chaos theorem Condorcet’s paradox Empirical estimation of spatial voting models NOMINATE Optimal classification
Syllabus