A neo-Downsian model of group-oriented voting and racial backlash

We extend the standard Downsian framework to suppose that voters consider the identity of each candidate's supporters when deciding whom to support, rather than considering only the announced policy positions of the candidates. In particular we posit the existence of a class of voters whose support for a candidate reduces support by some other voters for that candidate. Our most important result concerns the conditions under which the addition to the electorate of new voters on one side of the policy spectrum shifts the equilibrium toward the opposite direction. The model can explain why enfranchisement of blacks did not immediately help the election of liberal candidates.     

Voter discernment and candidate entry in pluralitarian election

The paper develops a sequential model of candidate entry into elections decided on the basis of plurality. We analyze the kinds of candidates who are most likely to enter elections and simulate several plausible myopic entry sequences under various assumptions about voter abilities to discern differences in candidate positions. In the cases examined, open elections for “important” positions attract the entry of more than two candidates. Moreover, myopic entry often generates electoral outcomes which depart from the median-mean outcomes of the conventional models. These results are consistent with the observed diversity of candidates in presidential and other significant primary elections which contrasts with many previous analyses of electoral entry.     

‘Cleaning up’ while cleaning up? Pollution abatement,interest groups and contingent trade policies

This paper analyzes the political economy of environmental-policy formation in a trading economy with established rules for administered protection. We argue that the social costs associated with the adoption of an inefficient environmental regime are likely to be compounded by induced restrictions on trade when the effected industries are import competing. The preferences of interest groups for alternative environmental regimes tend to be linked to the legal-institutional setting in which trade policy is conducted. Under existing rules and practices in the area of administered protection, there is reason to believe that interest group preferences for an inefficient approach to pollution control will be strengthened because the adoption of such a regime is more likely to lead to a concomitant increase in trade barriers.     

Leo Strauss: the Ancient as Modern

Although his approach to politics and philosophy were relatively little known outside the United States, Leo Strauss was perhaps the most revered and the most controversial figure in post-war American political science. His followers today form what is arguably the most cohesive intellectual fraternity in the discipline. They constitute a highly influential opposition to the empirical-quantitative course taken by political science and political philosophy.
This study explores Strauss's ideas highlighting the unconventional mixture of substance and style that gives them an arrestingly idiosyncratic character. Substantively, Strauss belonged to the pre-modern intellectual tradition that understood Truth as accessible and knowable through philosophical contemplation. The form of his argumentation, however, his relentless critique of modernity and the moderns, is conducted with all the cognitive weaponry provided for by the modernist intellectual style.     

United States' electricity imports from Quebec and the fair trade issue

Abstract: Hydro-Québec's energy exports to neighbouring American electric utilities have increased substantially over the last decade as a result of conditions created by the oil crisis of the seventies. These increases have mostly been in the form of interruptible energy exchanges. Considering prices and costs of production on both sides of the border, the prospects for further growth of firm energy exports to the United States appear to be reasonably good. Some institutional features of electricity production in Quebec may raise concerns about fair trading. These concerns have little foundation, however, when consideration is given to the size of energy imports relative to the American northeast market, the pricing method of Hydro-Québec electricity exports to the United States, and the role played by the National Energy Board in Canada. Sommaire: Les conditions créées par la crise pétrolière des années soixante-dix ont permis à Hydro-Québec d'accroître de façon significative ses exportations aux services d'électricité américains. Cette croissance a pris la forme, en grande partie, de ventes d'énergie interruptible. Compte tenu des prix et des coûts de production actuels de chaque côdé la frontière, il serait raisonnable de s'attendre à une croissance des exportations d'énergie ferme aux États-Unis. Quelques caractéristiques institutionnelles de la production de l'électricité au Québec pourraient par contre soulever des inquiétudes quant au commerce équitable. Toutefois, ces inquiétudes apparaissent avoir peu de fondements quand on tient compte de la taille relative de ces exportations vers le marché de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, de la méthode tarifaire employée par Hydro-Québec pour ses exportations américaines et du rôle joué par l'Office national de léenergie du Canada.     

The structure of the Banks set

We consider a new solution set for majority voting tournaments recently proposed by Banks (1985), and we examine its internal structure. In particular, we demonstrate that, in the absence of a Condorcet winner, there is always a cycle including precisely the points in the Banks set. We introduce the concept of “external stability” in order to facilitate analysis.