Jump to content

Probabilistic voting model

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Allens (talk | contribs) at 22:46, 26 November 2011 (Applications: Full citations needed). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The probabilistic voting theory, also known as the probabilistic voting model, is a voting theory developed by professor Melvin Hinich, which has gradually replaced the median voter theory, thanks to its ability to find an equilibrium in a multi-dimensional space. This theory represents a break-through in political economy literature and can be used to solve problems that were impossible to solve before. In fact, unlike the median voter theorem, what drives the equilibrium policy is both the numerosity and the density of social groups and not the median position of voters on a preference scale. This difference explains why social groups which have a great homogeneity of preferences are more politically powerful than those whose preferences are dispersed.

Applications

Political economy and public economics are the main fields where the probabilistic voting theory is applied. In particular, it was used to explain public expenditure programmes (Persson & Tabellini, 2000), social security systems (Profeta, 2002) and taxation (Hettich & Winer, 1999 and Canegrati, 2007).[full citation needed]

References