Affiliation:
1. Royal Holloway University of London London United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
2. Washington University at St. Louis St. Louis United States
3. George Mason University Fairfax USA
Abstract
AbstractWe argue that traditional voting models fail to fully explain the frequency of very close mass elections with high turnout. Instead, we model elections as a competition between incentive schemes to mobilize voters. We elucidate conditions under which parties might prefer close elections, as the potential to be pivotal motivates voters instead of exclusively costly incentives as in nonclose elections. We show that, under those conditions, better voter targeting results in tighter races and increased turnout. Furthermore, the smaller party often has a strong incentive to commit to strategies that ensure a close election.