UCL Discovery

Abstract

We study the role of parties in a citizen-candidate repeated-elections model where voters have incomplete information. We identify a novel “party competition effect.”Compared with “at large” selection of candidates, party selection makes office-holders more willing to avoid extreme ideo- logical stands. Politicians follow party discipline, even in absence of a party-controlled reward mechanism. Voters of all ideologies benefit from the party-competition effect, which thus pro- vides a novel rationale for political parties. When politicians have an (imperfect) informational advantage over voters, we additionally …nd a “party screening e¤ect.” Parties select moderate candidates, because they anticipate that their candidate’s ideological record can be verifiably dis- closed through campaigning. Under reasonable functional assumptions, all voters benefit from party screening.

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