Social Science Job Candidate

I consider a model in which candidates of differing quality must win a primary election to compete in the general election. Candidates choose policies on a one-dimensional policy space, and there is uncertainty about the preferences of the median voter in the general election. I show that there is an equilibrium in which Democrats choose liberal policies and Republicans choose conservative policies, but higher quality candidates choose more moderate policies than lower quality candidates.

http://www.stanford.edu/~phummel/wpo.pdf

http://www.stanford.edu/~phummel/wpps.pdf