Midterm 2 Flashcards
3 assumptions of Black’s Median Voter Theorem
Odd # group, full participation, sincere voting
Black’s Median Voter Theorem
Winset of medians ideal point is an empty set
Role of Rules Committee
Traffic cop rule, can allow amendments to legislation or not
Open rule
Allows all amendments
Closed rule
No amendments allowed
Modified/standard rule
Rules committee picks and chooses amendments
Variable
A characteristic that can vary in value amongst output
Mean
Sum of all #s divided by the # of items on the list
Median
that separates the higher half from the lower half; more useful in Poli Sci than mean because less sensitive to outliers
Mode
that occurs most frequently; most useful in large datasets
Variance
Squared deviation from the mean; tells us about spread, determines confidence
Standard deviation
Square root of variance
Outlier
Observation that falls from the rest of data, 2-3 standard deviations from the mean
Multi-dimensionality
3 hours people have to divide $1; majorities are cyclical, no stable winset
Indifference cirlce
I want $8, indifferent between $8.05 & $7.95
Plott’s theorem
2 dimensions will not find a medium voter theorem winner but can find radial symmetry
McKelvey’s chaos theorem
Plott’s idea is too sensitive to movement that you still get cycles; radial symmetry is a pipe dream
Multi-dimensionality solution
Agenda setting and voting rules
Rational choice
Positive political theorem, rely on assumptions of self interested rational actions
Normative vs Positive
Normative: what ought to be
Positive: how the world is
Rationality assumptions
People have complete, transitive preferences and we can assign utility/worth to outcomes
Expected utility
The probability of an event happening multiplied by utility
EU= p x u
Single peaked preferences
Want $7 so no difference between $8 and $9
Cohesion trade off
Trade off between cohesive preferences and fairness
