Electoral Participation under Alternative Jurisdictional Structures: A Theoretical and Experimental Investigation

替代管辖结构下的选举参与：理论和实验研究

• 批准号: 9820229
• 负责人: Dan Levin
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Ohio State University Research Foundation -DO NOT USE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-09-01 至 2003-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9820229&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Electoral; Participation; under; Alternative; Jurisdictional

We propose to study, using theoretical analysis and laboratory experiments, the interaction between two issues in voting and information aggregation in environments of incomplete information. The first issue is strategic participation by voters. The second is the partitioning of voters into jurisdictions. In particular, we are interested in the positive and normative implications of alternative electoral partitions when voters have an incentive to behave strategically.Building on earlier theoretical research on voting we develop model of electoral participation under two information structures, common values and private values. This approach connects our work with the literature on competitive bidding and auctions. In our model, voters behave strategically and respond to informational environments, costs of voting, and the jurisdictional structure. Such dependency allows the investigation of the positive and normative aspects of alternative partitions of the electorate into different jurisdictional structures. This provides an analytical framework for ranking jurisdictional structures based on the underlying informational environment. A simple model is presented for motivational and illustrative purpose.All theoretical predictions will be tested with experiments; a sketch of the design and treatments is provided. Naturally, for any normative conclusions regarding electoral systems to be valid, the predicted behavior leading to these conclusions must mirror real behavior. Of particular interest is how experimental subjects respond to different incentives. For example, parameterizing the direct costs of voting and the informational factors referred to above and varying their values across experimental treatments will allow inferences about the strengths of these factors relative to those that are predicted. The performance of different jurisdictional structures within the same environment can also be observed directly in the experimental data collected.The desired impact of this project includes an improved perspective on the factors influencing voter participation, and scientifically corroborated prescriptions for what kinds of issues should be resolved at a highly centralized level of authority and what kinds at a localized level. As the federal government turns welfare policy over to the states and debates national school curriculum standards, this topic is of particular significance to current United States political economy.

我们建议研究，使用理论分析和实验室实验，在不完全信息的环境中，投票和信息聚合中的两个问题之间的相互作用。第一个问题是选民的战略参与。第二个是将选民划分为不同的管辖区。特别是，我们感兴趣的积极和规范性的影响，当选民有动机的行为strategically.Building早期的理论研究投票，我们开发的两个信息结构下的选举参与模型，共同价值观和私人价值观。这种方法将我们的工作与竞争性投标和拍卖的文献联系起来。在我们的模型中，选民的行为策略，并响应信息环境，投票成本和管辖结构。这种依赖性使人们能够调查将选民划分为不同管辖结构的其他办法的积极和规范方面。这提供了一个分析框架，根据基本的信息环境对管辖结构进行排名。本文提出一个简单的模型以供参考，所有的理论预测都将通过实验进行验证，并提供了设计和处理的草图。当然，任何关于选举制度的规范性结论都是有效的，导致这些结论的预测行为必须反映真实的行为。特别感兴趣的是实验对象如何对不同的激励做出反应。例如，将投票的直接成本和上面提到的信息因素参数化，并在实验处理中改变它们的值，将允许推断这些因素相对于预测因素的强度。同一环境下不同管辖结构的表现也可以直接从收集的实验数据中观察到。该项目的预期影响包括改善对影响选民参与的因素的看法，以及科学地证实哪些问题应在高度集中的权力一级解决，哪些问题应在地方一级解决。随着联邦政府将福利政策移交给各州，并就国家学校课程标准进行辩论，这一主题对当前美国政治经济具有特别重要的意义。